Stanwell Power Station
Power station in Queensland, Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanwell Power Station is a government-owned coal-fired power generation station located in Stanwell, 23 kilometres (14 mi) south-west of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. At the time of construction, it was one of the largest industrial developments undertaken in Queensland. With a capacity to generate 1,445 megawatts (MW), Stanwell Power Station supplies electricity for distribution to customers via the state's high voltage electricity grid.[1]
| Stanwell Power Station | |
|---|---|
Stanwell Power Station, 2017 | |
 | |
| Country | Australia |
| Location | Stanwell, Rockhampton Region |
| Coordinates | 23°30′35″S 150°19′7″E |
| Status | Operational |
| Commission date | 1993 - 1996 |
| Owner | Stanwell Corporation |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Coal |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 1,445 MW |
History
Fuel
Design
There are four generating units at Stanwell Power Station. The four units and their components are housed in a 20 storey boiler house and a turbine hall the length of three football fields. The power station is highly automated using only half the workforce that a plant of its size would usually use. [3] These innovations in unattended operation have been recognized both nationally and internationally [citation needed]. Stanwell Power Station previously held the world record at 1,073 days of continuous operation on Unit 4.[4] This was surpassed in 2021 by Canadian public entity Ontario Power Generation's Darlington Nuclear Generating Station Unit 1, which ran for 1,106 days continuous.[5]
The station features a 210-metre-high-chimney stack which was constructed using approximately 750,000 bricks.[1] The station has two cooling towers, each stands 130 metres high (about the height of a 40-storey building) and is 100 metres in diameter.[1] Fifteen thousand cubic metres of concrete was poured for each tower.[1] The plume seen coming from the cooling towers is steam, lost through evaporation during the water-cooling process.
Additional facilities
The Queensland government and Stanwell decided to build a 1 MW / 10 MWh iron redox flow battery.[6] Construction of a 300 MW / 1,200 MWh battery storage power station at AU$747 million for 2027 started in 2024.[7][8]
