The 140 megawatt Condamine Power Station is located more than 300 km west of Brisbane in Queensland’s Darling Downs. Set amidst the coal seam methane gas fields of the Queensland Gas Company (QGC), the station increased the company’s distribution chain by linking it to the National Electricity Grid.
Using Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) technology, the station generates power with the gas turbine generator. The waste heat from the gas turbine is used to make steam to generate additional electricity.
This is a more efficient means of producing electricity than coal-fired power stations, and results in significantly less greenhouse gas.
Multidisciplinary Services
QGC engaged WSP as the owner's engineer during the power station’s development and construction.
In addition to project management, our services included:
- Development phase support, including writing specifications, tender administration and analysis
- Contract administration support
- Design review
- Inspection of the manufacturing shop and site
- Coordination of stakeholder contact, such as Ergon and AEMO, and the gas field
- Quality reviews
- Health, safety and environment inspections
- Commissioning inspections
- Assistance with the plant handover to QGC
Key Achievements
Our people introduced some innovative practices that benefited this project. Specifically, our input contributed to the power station's quality, performance and ability to deliver energy with less environmental impact than conventional coal power plants.
The innovations included:
- The use of recycled wastewater from coal seam methane production in an evaporative-cooling tower. At the time, this was a first in Australia. The technology improves the output, efficiency and greenhouse impact of the steam turbine in comparison to the alternative dry-cooling system.
- Use of coal seam methane gas, a by-product of the coal-mining process and a previously wasted commodity, to fire the plant. With our assistance, QGC can now generate revenue from a reliable fuel source that would otherwise not have been used.
