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That story doesn't really check out. Brown coal and black coal come from different coal fields, and those power stations in NSW are powered by nearby coal fiel
by caf 5y ago
That story doesn't really check out. Brown coal and black coal come from different coal fields, and those power stations in NSW are powered by nearby coal fields. Brown coal in particular is so energy-poor it's not really worth transporting it anywhere. Brown coal needs a different furnace design, too, to account for the high moisture content.
Seems more likely that there's some random efficiency differences between the units due to differences in build/maintenance history and the monitoring is done on the unit that's known to be the best-performing one, and that's been exaggerated as it goes through the rumour mill.
- Jedd 5y agoYup, see my reply to the sibling comment made at about the same time as yours. I've mucked up with the brown coal assumption (mining and power generation are not my thing) but I don't doubt the accuracy of the report from my engineer friend that the highest quality coal they shipped in went into the one burner that was carefully monitored, and the cheapest / lowest quality material went into the others.
- caf 5y agoFor some context for those reading along, here's Liddell Power Station: https://goo.gl/maps/tNMeDzyrgwtFsiE67 https://goo.gl/maps/tNMeDzyrgwtFsiE67 You can see the enormous pile of washed and graded coal at the southern end, fed by a network of conveyors that leads to the Ravensworth CHPP to the southeast.