General News
10 July, 2019
Explosion halves generation capacity
AN explosion resulting from an electrical fault early on Monday morning has damaged one of the two generators at the Mortlake Power Station, with repair works set to take about five months.
AN explosion resulting from an electrical fault early on Monday morning has damaged one of the two generators at the Mortlake Power Station, with repair works set to take about five months.
An Origin Energy spokesperson said the fault occurred in the early hours of Monday morning.
“At approximately 6am on Monday, a generating unit at Origin’s Mortlake Power Station experienced an electrical fault,” the spokesperson said.
Country Fire Authority units from the Mortlake brigade arrived at the scene at about 6.10am on Monday morning, with crews from the Noorat and Warrnambool brigades also attending.
CFA crews used breathing apparatus and remained on site for about three hours to secure the scene.
Origin Energy executive general manager of energy supply and operations Greg Jarvis said initial assessments estimated the restart of the generator would take place on Friday, December 20.
“Origin will work with the market operator and our suppliers with the aim of making the damaged unit available ahead of the summer peak and to reduce the impact on customers,” he said.
One of the 292 megawatt generators would remain online in the interim to supply power to the grid.
The Mortlake Power Station is a gas-powered power station intended to run at times of peak demand and represents less than three per cent of Victoria’s total generation capacity.