egolinews.com

Origin Energy Limited (ORG) said it had successfully synchronised to the grid the first turbine of its 630 megawatt (MW) Darling Downs combined cycle power station. The company said the first of three 120 MW gas turbines was synchronised yesterday as part of a commissioning phase which will extend over coming months.

Origin said the station is the centrepiece of an investment of more than $1 billion by Origin in providing cleaner natural gas-fired electricity.

The company said the milestone follows completion of the 205 kilometre domestic gas pipeline linking the power station to Australia Pacific LNG’s (a 50:50 joint venture between Origin and ConocoPhillips) coal seam gas fields in the Surat Basin.

Origin executive general manager for Major Development Projects, Andrew Stock, said the station would be one of the country’s cleanest baseload power stations with three gas turbines and a steam turbine, and would emit less than half of the greenhouse gas and use less than 3% of the water used by a typical water-cooled coal-fired power station.

“The gas turbines will be fired up one at a time during the coming weeks before the steam turbine comes on line early next year, with the power station on schedule to be fully commissioned in the June quarter of 2010,” Mr Stock said.

The company expects capacity of the Darling Downs Power Station to reach 2800MW by the end of 2010.

As at 1100 AEDT, Origin shares were up 21c to $16.04.

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