POWER FROM COAL

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 179, 30 August 1929, Page 11

POWER FROM COAL

GBJSAT VICTORIAN 1'LANT. s — THE YALLOUEX UX JDERT AKIN G . CAPITAL XOW £1-3,000,000. In a rccent address the cliairruan of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, General Sir John Monash, described tlie remarkahle growtli of the State electric power svstera centred in the Yallourn coalfield, where brown coal is mined in enonnous quantities 011 tlie open cnt Kystern. Until Victoria begau to deveioj) its immense resources of brown coal, be said, the State was the vassel for the btlier States, notwitlistanding that it possessed greater coal resources than any other. The electricity undertaking was Jaunched h.v Sir Artbur Robinson, and it proyidecl a inodel of power conservation. There were now 1-300 miles of transmission lines, and current was being transniitted for a greater distance than in any other pait of the British Etnpire. Electricity was being supplied to 130 rural towns, and a great niany of them liad not previouslv had any electricity seryice. There was £13,000.000 invested in the nndertaking, and it was meoting interest and redemption^ the revenue being nearlv £2,000,000 per annum. Excpting a few water-jiower eleetrical systenis, tlie electricity from Yallourn was being supplied more clieaply than in other parts of tho world. MODEHX COAL DREDGER. Tt was intended to embraee Bendigo, Ballarat and Geclong with the ring main, which couid be fcd with electricity from eitlior eiul. Fiom the ring main hranch transmission Ijiies would he eonstrncted to suppl.y otlier eentre.s. It was exjiected that 1l;e complete system for tho countrv districts to be servecl by tlie ring inaiu would he finished in two years. ' llemarknble modern niaehinery is being installed at Yallourn for removing the overburden and tlie coal benear.li. The latest coal dredge will exca'vate the coal down to apjiroximatelv 130it. below ground or overburden level, and will ultimately forin tlie main wm-king bench, 100ft. below tlie svirfaee cf the coal. On thi.s bench a ' second coal dredge, now on order, will he p'accd to dig to tlie hottom of the coal sea m, which is from 170ft. to 200ft. tbick. A seraper dredge also will he placed on this main bench to win all the coal from the upper working face. s-o that as tlie dredges are movcd hack the whole uepth of the coal will be tr.ktn from the cut. OUTPUT 13,000 TOXS DAILY. An electric steep haulagc of special dcsign lia.s heen ordered to overcome, in a short distance, tlie large difference in level between tlie main coal bench and tlie receiving hoppers 160ft. abovc. Tlre incroasing demands of the power station and briquetting factory combined will require 10,000 tons'a day in 1931. "When the full nevv installafcion of 73,000 kilowatts of new generating plant at Yallourn is complete, th* output required will be 13,000 tons . a day. The new plant is of German design, Init as much of it as possiblc is "being made in Australia. Tlie total cost will be £123,000. and tbc plant is expeeted to be in use by Ihe end of 1930.