Demolition job: Last SA coal-fired power station blown up

In one of the world’s biggest demolition projects, two boilers from the last coal-fired power station in SA have been blown up.

Two landmark 10,000-tonne boilers from the last coal-fired power station in South Australia have been blown up in one of the biggest demolition projects undertaken in the world.

Vision released today by a public relations firm shows one of the most spectacular activities in Flinders Power’s progressive demolition job of the former coal-fired power station in Port Augusta. Each boiler is 83 metres high, 46 metres long and 22 metres wide.

The Northern Power Station was forced to close early last year by the rise of renewables in South Australia.

Premier Jay Weatherill earlier today on his Twitter feed retweeted, “coal is dead, long live renewables”, although this was not in direct reference to the demolition activity.

Last May the plant closed with the loss of hundreds of jobs and saw immediate spikes in the price of power, along with a spate of blackouts, leaving South Australia at the time with the most expensive and unreliable power grid in the country.

This morning, specialist explosive charges were used to bring down the two boilers which were the biggest parts left of the Northern Power Station.

McMahon Services is in running the demolition of the power station and today in consultation with police, Precision Demolition and Flinders Power established an exclusion zone around the plant.

McMahon Services general manager Andrew McMahon said the boiler demolition was the biggest phase of the felling work.

“It’s one of the biggest felling projects undertaken in the world, certainly the largest in the southern hemisphere,” he said.

A Flinders Power spokesman said the two 10,000-tonne structures were successfully demolished at 9am using charge-cutting explosives.

Flinders Power demolition of major boilers at 9am today. Picture: Supplied.

Further demolition of the boilers will continue using conventional processes.

An amount of dust was visible at the site of the demolition, which settled on the site, the spokesman said.

“The company wishes to acknowledge the efforts of the thousands of dedicated and passionate

people who designed, constructed, operated, maintained — and now demolished — these landmark structures over the past 30 years,” a Flinders Power spokesman said.

The power station’s facilities manager Kym Maule said the demolition was tinged with regret.

“It’s a big milestone; some sadness with it but also an exciting part of the project,” he said.

Other key parts of the station, including the turbine generator, were demolished earlier this year.

The demolition came as South Australian Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis today opened the Smart Energy Summit in Adelaide.

Mr Koutsantonis criticised the Turnbull government’s National Energy Guarantee because he said it favoured coal-fuelled generation and assumed renewable energy was the reason for the high cost of electricity.

“It’s a nod and a wink to the coal industry,” he said.

The state Labor government, in power in South Australia since 2002, is ideologically opposed to coal. South Australia has one of the highest concentrations of wind and solar power generation in the world.

Today’s summit heard from renewable energy advocates, who promised South Australians they would have the cheapest power prices in the country in as little as six months.

Although the state now has some of the lowest wholesale power prices because of increased gas generation, this is yet to flow through to household bills.