EnergyAustralia has announced it has successfully completed the first test fire of its new 316MW Tallawarra B gas power station, located on the shores of Lake Illawarra at Yallah, New South Wales.
EnergyAustralia said once commissioned, the $300 million Tallawarra B gas power station will power up to 180,000 homes and businesses during peak demand periods, providing system reliability and complementing renewables coming into the system.
Tallawarra B is located adjacent to EnergyAustralia’s existing combined cycle Tallawarra A gas-fired power station, which has been in operation since 2009.
Tallawarra A is one of Australia’s most thermally efficient, large-scale gas-fired power stations with a generation capacity of 435MW.
EnergyAustralia’s Tallawarra B Project Director, Ian Black, said, “Successfully completing the test fire is a significant milestone toward Tallawarra B’s commercial operation early in 2024.
“We understand the importance of completing this project to help provide energy security for homes and businesses in New South Wales with what is predicted to be a hot and dry El Niño summer. While there is still more work to complete, we look forward to completing the remaining work to bring Tallawarra B online this summer.
“As Australia continues to transition away from coal to renewables, fast-start gas generation assets like Tallawarra B, will play a critical role in supporting electricity reliability at peak periods and at times of low solar and wind production,” Mr Black said.
EnergyAustralia and other project partners, including GE and over 300 contractors, have worked to keep the project on track through supply chain disruptions associated with the COVID pandemic and after the principal project contractor Clough went into administration in December 2022.
AEMO and grid provider Endeavour Energy are supporting Tallawarra B to connect to the grid as efficiently as possible.
