Newport Power Station

The Newport Power Station travel poster by Kerrie Gottliebsen takes in the view from the adjoining off-lead dog park where locals of the west gather with their four-legged friends.

The giant chimney with its red and white stripes is an immediately recognisable land-mark of Melbourne’s west. The vintage inspired artwork would be a perfect gift for lovers of Melbourne’s west.

Newport Power Station History

Newport Power Station has the largest natural gas steam turbine unit in the NEM and along with Torrens Island in SA, are in a class of their own. Unlike other gas turbines, thermal units like Newport require hours to heat the boiler to create the necessary steam.

Newport was designed as an intermediate power station and commenced operations in 1981, following a controversial start. The plant was originally proposed by the SECV to be a 1,000MW station, but it met resistance from the local community and the Trades Hall Council.

An independent panel was setup and in 1977, the Newport Review Panel concluded that the station should be reduced to 500MW given “the need to conserve natural gas wherever possible” and environmental concerns. Construction was delayed 4-years which cost the community $350m on top of the $194m build cost, said the SECV Annual Report. The surplus second 500MW unit was shipped off to Loy Yang A, and became the odd Unit 2 amongst the 4 Units.

Local community groups were told that Newport would close in 2012 after 30-years of operation, however privatisation overtook events. It would be fair to say that Newport has probably ran less often than envisaged by the SECV, in the 1970’s.

The Newport Power Station travel poster comes in A4, A3, A2, A1 and the super enormous A0. It also comes as a linen tea towel in a gorgeous matching box. https://kerriegottliebsen.com/product/newport-power-station-tea-towel/

Thank you to Carl Daley for the history https://www.energybyte.com.au/newport-power-station-re-birth/