Not Liddell power station – ABC News gets it wrong. (Actually Bayswater.)
Liddell power station (near Muswellbrook NSW) has been in the news this week, with a bit of a public stoush between its owners AGL who intend to close the station in 2022, and Malcolm Turnbull who wants to keep it open for five years beyond that date.
One of the frustrating aspects of this has been how frequently the media shows a picture of a power station other than Liddell when reporting on Liddell.
I’m familiar with Liddell power station as I worked there as an electrical engineer from December 1986 to January 1988 in my first job after graduating from university. Since the media is incapable of showing pictures of Liddell, I thought I’d scan and post some of the photos I took while I worked there. It was an interesting time, as there was a lot of repair and remediation work going on, and I got to look inside a lot of equipment that would normally be unseen.
Liddell does not have cooling towers, the cooling water for the steam condensers is supplied by Lake Liddell. Yes they always tend to show the wrong station as you stated, I think they like to show Bayswater with the emissions from the cooling towers which is only water vapour not smoke which they want you to think. I was employed by the Electricity Commission in the 1980’s as a Assistant Power Plant Operator at the old Tallawarra Power Station, it was a shame when the commission was dismantled and everything sold off, look at the mess we are now in.