Power plants in state of decay

Herald Sun
Monday 11/8/2008 Page: 87

ENGINEERS at the decaying Yallourn Power Station built a barrier of shipping containers in front of a giant turbine in case its cracked blades flew off. And at the equally old Hazelwood Power Station, a wall has been put around a corroded boiler to keep workers out of danger. Industry sources say years of under-investment in Victoria's electricity infrastructure has left the state under threat from sudden power shortages. And the sources, speaking to the Herald Sun on condition of anonymity, warn the situation is getting worse by the day, with plant operators cutting costs amid uncertainty over their future under the Federal Government's carbon pollution trading scheme.

Yallourn and Hazelwood, which sit side by side in the Latrobe Valley, are vital to Victoria's power supply. Together they produce about 50 per cent of the power for the state's households and industry. Yet parts of them are more than 40 years old. Carl Kitchen, a spokesperson for Yallourn's owner TRUEnergy, which is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based energy group CLP Power, said cracks in the turbine blades had appeared "earlier than expected" given their age and that a "physical barrier" was put in place to shield staff "as a precaution."

The problem had been fixed in a $100 million overhaul of the plant's four generating units completed two months ago. Mr Kitchen said Yallourn's maintenance budget had since been scaled back. A spokesman for the Hazelwood Power Station - owned by British based International Power - Jim Kouts, denied a wall-like barrier had been built around a corroded boiler at the plant. "There is no fence around any of our boilers," he said.

However, the existence of a "walled off area" was confirmed by Luke van der Meulen, Victorian district president for the Latrobe Valley's dominant trade union, the CFMEU, and WorkSafe Victoria spokesman, Michael Birt. Mr van der Meulen said a wall with doors had been erected around the second unit at Hazelwood after corrosion was found in the boiler walls.

"It's bad, it needs to be fixed, and it could blow - but if it did there's going to be nobody within a bull's roar of the place," he said. He added: "These power stations are old and, if things were normal, there would be new stations built if the place wasn't privatised." WorkSafe Victoria's Mr Birt said the wall around unit two had been up "for some months." "We're aware of that issue," he said.

However, International Power's Mr Kouts said the problem in the second unit was limited and all that was required was for 15 metres of corroded tubing in the boiler to be replaced. All units at Hazelwood were operating as normal, he said. Both Yallourn and Hazelwood were privatised by the Kennett Government in 1996. Industry sources told the Herald Sun that TRUEnergy and International Power paid a premium for the stations and had been forced to manage costs tightly at the operations to remain profitable.

When told of the problems at Yallourn and Hazelwood, Matthew Wright, a policy adviser at non-profit organisation Climate Positive, said they were signs of broader maintenance problems at the plants. "Given the whole emissions trading scheme and the uncertainty around that, those companies don't want to spend money on maintenance that isn't going to be worth much," he said.

Victoria's other two power stations, Loy Yang A and B, also in the Latrobe Valley, were operating smoothly, industry sources said.