Melbourne, 18 November 2005
Siemens Power Generation today handed over Australia’s newest and most advanced natural gas power station to owner and operator Transfield Services Pty Ltd.
The 300 megawatt power station is located in Kemerton, 150 kilometres south east of Perth, Western Australia and is the first stand-alone peak-load power station to be built in Australia’s largest State.
Siemens Australia and New Zealand Chairman & Managing Director, Albert Goller, said he was pleased to have delivered the power station on-time and on-budget while adopting the highest standards of safety.
"Projects of this scale and complexity always come with significant risks and challenges," said Mr Goller.
"Our responsibilities for safety, reliability and the environment have all weighed heavily on our project team and we are pleased to have successfully delivered the Kemerton Power Station on-time and budget."
At the peak of construction, the Kemerton plant had more than 200 local contractor personnel on-site carrying out a variety of tasks from civil construction and electrical installation to project management and administration.
No lost time injury was recorded throughout the 310,000 person hours worked on the site.
The natural water table in this region of Western Australia is just 150 centimetres below the surface and all excavations involved ground water controls to mitigate acid sulphate soil conditions.
The Kemerton power plant includes two Siemens SGT 5-2000E gas turbines (formerly known as V94.2 machines) and all associated auxiliary and supporting systems. The power plant will be operated with natural gas and diesel fuel can also be used as an alternative should gas flow be interrupted.
Siemens has also incorporated fully automated remote access control systems into the plant to facilitate complete remote control.
With commencement of commercial operations last week, the plant will feed power into the southwestern Australian grid to cover peak demand.
Siemens has had a long history and extensive experience in meeting Australia’s growing power needs. In the late 1980s, Siemens delivered three large-scale steam turbine-generators for the Australian Loy Yang lignite-fired power plant and in 1999, handed over the Oakey 300-megawatt gas turbine power plant in Queensland. More recently, Siemens converted a Townsville power plant from peak load to base load and is currently delivering another gas-fired power plant in Victoria and a large coal fired power plant in Queensland.