Playford B Coal Power Station Stack Toppled

Image : via Flinders Power

In another powerful reminder of South Australia’s exit from coal-fired electricity generation within its borders, the 80-metre high Playford B stack at the Augusta Power Stations site was demolished on Thursday.

Flinders Power said the exercise went smoothly and dust was kept to a minimum.

Flinders Power noted the structure was not the 200m high Northern stack, which remains on schedule at this point for demolition in April/May this year.

The Playford B site is located just a few kilometres from Port Augusta’s CBD. Commissioned in 1963 following the construction of Playford A (90MW) in 1954-1957, the station featured four 60MW steam turbines fed by brown coal  delivered via rail from the Leigh Creek Coal Mine, some 260 kilometres away. It ceased operations in 2012 and its permanent closure was announced by Alinta Energy in 2015.

Playford B was an emissions intensive power station – 1,358 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per gigawatt hour of energy produced. In addition to greenhouse gases and various toxins it spewed into the atmosphere, it also contributed to pollution in the Spencer Gulf.

Playford B used water from the Gulf for cooling and discharged it back at an elevated temperature. Also discharged into the Gulf were pollutants including arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium and mercury.

Playford A and B were joined by another plant, Northern Power Station, in 1985; which is also being demolished. Northern Power Station’s legacy has continued to haunt Port August residents since its closure in 2016; which marked the end of coal-fired electricity generation in South Australia.

At one point, Port Augusta’s power stations generated up to 35 per cent of South Australia’s electricity.

A Brighter, Cleaner Energy Future

The toppling of  Playford B’s stack, the seventh charge felling event of the demolition project, came just a couple of days after Port Augusta’s journey to a wind and solar energy future took a few more steps forward.

The company to develop the 150MW Aurora solar thermal power station project, SolarReserve, officially opened two offices in South Australia early last week; one in Adelaide and the other in Port Augusta. The Aurora project was granted development approval by the South Australian Government earlier this month.

Aurora isn’t the only major renewables project for the region. Several other large facilities are in the works, including the 212MW Lincoln Gap Wind Farm and DP Energy’s Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park, which will feature up to 59 wind turbines and 1.6 million solar panels.