Origin: Mortlake Gas Power Station Completed (Australia)

Origin Energy announced that the second unit at its Mortlake Power Station in Victoria has completed final commissioning, signalling the formal completion of the 550 MW development.

Mortlake is the largest gas-fired power station in Victoria and represents an investment of $810 million by Origin, including the associated pipeline. It is a peaking power station located near Mortlake in South-western Victoria, and will help meet demand for electricity in eastern Australia.

Origin Chief Executive Officer Energy Markets, Mr Frank Calabria said, “Completion of the Mortlake Power Station strengthens and adds further flexibility to Origin’s power generation portfolio.

“Mortlake represents a significant investment by Origin in Victoria, created hundreds of regional jobs in South-western Victoria during construction and will support a number of ongoing jobs in the local community.

“Mortlake is a highly efficient peaking power station that will help meet Victoria’s electricity demand,” Mr Calabria said.

The Mortlake Power Station development also included the construction of an 83 km underground natural gas transmission pipeline. Mortlake is powered by natural gas sourced from Origin’s gas reserves in the Port Campbell area and processed at Origin’s Otway Gas Plant.

The first of Mortlake’s two units was successfully completed in January 2012. The completion of the second unit takes Origin’s total generation capacity to 5,900 MW of owned and contracted rights.

Origin will now commence recording revenues and earnings from the power station.

Gas-fired peaking power stations are important for meeting demand for electricity, as they have the ability to be turned on remotely at approximately five minutes notice.

Origin has designed Mortlake power station to provide flexibility to respond to future market conditions. The site has approval to expand its current capacity in the future, and could be converted to a highly efficient low carbon emissions combined cycle baseload plant if market conditions warrant it.

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LNG World News Staff, August 21, 2012