Anglesea Power Station, Victoria (Australia)

Anglesea Power Station
The single steam turbine 150MW Anglesea power station. Photo: John Englart
Location of Anglesea Power Station
Country	Australia
Location	Anglesea, Victoria
Coordinates	38°23′20.51″S 144°10′50.12″E / 38.3890306°S 144.1805889°E / -38.3890306; 144.1805889Coordinates: 38°23′20.51″S 144°10′50.12″E / 38.3890306°S 144.1805889°E / -38.3890306; 144.1805889
Status	Closed
Commission date	20 March 1969
Decommission date	31 August 2015
Owner(s)	Alcoa
Operator(s)	Alcoa
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Brown coal
Power generation
Units operational	1 × 150 megawatts (200,000 hp)
Nameplate capacity	150 megawatts (200,000 hp)

The Anglesea Power Station was a brown coal–powered thermal power station located at Anglesea, in Victoria, Australia. The station has one steam turbine with a capacity of 150 megawatts (200,000 hp) of electricity. It was previously operated by Alcoa of Australia and supplied almost 40% of the electricity used by Alcoa's nearby Point Henry aluminium smelter, until the smelter's closure in August 2014.

The power station was brought online on 20 March 1969, and was supplied with coal by the adjacent open cut mine, transported to the power station along a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) long private road. Overburden was stripped and backfilled into the mined area by earthmoving contractors using conventional power shovels and trucks. About 80 people worked at the coal mine and power station. In June 2015 Alcoa announced that the power plant and mine would close at the end of August 2015, after the company was unable to find a buyer for the power station. On 31 August 2015 it ceased operation as planned. Mine rehabilitation, plant decommissioning and demolition are now in planning.

From 1955 test bores for coal were made at Anglesea by the Roche Brothers, who were then operating a mine at nearby Wensleydale where the coal reserves were dwindling. An extensive coal deposit was found two kilometres to the north of the Anglesea township, with mining commencing in 1959 to supply brown coal to industry and institutions in the Geelong area. The mining rights were taken over by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) in 1961 to supply the power station planned by Alcoa of Australia. The Mines (Aluminum Agreement) Act of 1961 granted Alcoa a 50–year exclusive right to explore and mine over some 7,350 hectares (18,200 acres) of leasehold land in the region. After further drilling investigation WMC relocated the mining operation to the east of the original mine, closer to the power station site and providing access to a larger coal reserve of 50 million long tons (51,000,000 t). The total thickness of the coal seams is about 140 metres (460 ft), with total economic mineable reserves estimated at 70 million long tons (71,000,000 t) in the upper seam, and a further 90 million long tons (91,000,000 t) in lower seams. In 1992 the overburden to coal ratio averaged around 2.5 to 1, with an average coal thickness of 27 metres (89 ft).