Loy Yang Power Station, Victoria

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Loy Yang Power Station is located on the outskirts of the city of Traralgon, in south eastern Victoria, Australia. It is coal powered, and is the largest amongst a number of power stations using the vast reserves of brown coal which exist in the Latrobe Valley. It is estimated that at current rates of extraction there are sufficient deposits of coal in the region to last 1300 years.^[1] Loy Yang produces about one third of Victoria's electricity requirements, the vast majority of which is produced by coal-fired power plants. Australia's reliance on coal for power generation results in it being one of the largest per capita producers of carbon dioxide which is believed to contribute to global warming.

Loy Yang was originally constructed through the 1980s by the government owned State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC) and is actually two separate stations, Loy Yang A and Loy Yang B. Both were privatised in 1995 as were most of the assets of the SEC, a process which profoundly affected the economy of the Latrobe Valley. Loy Yang A has four generating plants with a combined capacity of 2000 megawatts and is owned by GEAC, a consortium made up of AGL Limited, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Transfield Services and three superannuation funds.^[1] Loy Yang B was originally intended to also have four generating plants but was never finished. It has two plants with a capacity of 1000 megawatts and is owned by UK group International Power.

Four giant bucket-wheel excavators operate 24 hours a day in open cut mines feeding coal directly to the furnaces via conveyor belt. Each year approximately 30 million tonnes of coal are extracted from the open pit.