Published Resources Details
Conference Paper
- Title
- The Lake Macquarie Power Project
- In
- Proceedings of the Engineering Conference, 1953, Melbourne
- Imprint
- Institution of Engineers Australia, Sydney, Mar 1953, pp. 128-145
- Description
The author is Chief Electrical Engineer, Department of Railways, N.S.W.
- Abstract
It was in 1939, when consideration was being given to the development of additional power services for Sydney, that the then Chief Electrical Engineer for Railways, Mr. W. H. Myers, suggested the development of a power station on the shores of Lake Macquarie in the vicinity of Toronto.
This site was examined with a number of others, as alternatives to the development of the Sydney city stations, and the results furnished to the Government in 1941. The site chosen on this occasion was on Coal Point, a few miles beyond Toronto. At that time the redevelopment of the Sydney city sites proved more attractive than the use of an entirely new site, but time has indicated that too little weight was placed upon the difficulties of adding new equipment to restricted city sites, particularly in times of rapid system load growth.
In 1943 it became evident that some source of additional power would be required for the area comprising Newcastle and the region to westward and northward served by the Department of Railways' power station at Zarra Street, Newcastle. Again, it being now apparent that even existing plans for Sydney were insufficient, Mr. Myers suggested a station on Lake Macquarie to feed both Sydney and Newcastle areas, but Newcastle City Council desired to develop a power station for itself on the Hunter River. After consideration by committees over several years, in 1946 each party was requested to submit its proposal to the Electricity Authority of N.S.W. for adjudication.
The proposal put forward by the Department of Railways for a station of 300,000 kW on Lake Macquarie, in the vicinity of Wangi Wangi, to use coal from a new State mine to be developed at Awaba, 4½ miles away, was accepted and received Government approval. The proposal was designed to cover the Railway Department's requirements both for the Sydney and Newcastle areas, and the rate of development forecast was in accord with expected load growth.
The Electricity Authority, however, in accepting the proposal, asked that the rate of development be accelerated to cover in addition, the growing requirements of the Sydney County Council.
The whole project developed at that time covered, not only the power station itself, but also the transmission lines and terminal and regulating stations through which the power would be fed to the existing distributing networks.
Related Published resources
isPartOf
- Proceedings of the Engineering Conference, 1953, Melbourne (Sydney: Institution of Engineers Australia, 1953), 169 pp. Details