Wivenhoe Power Station, Queensland

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For other uses or the term, see: Wivenhoe (disambiguation)

The Wivenhoe Dam has been built across the Brisbane River about 80 kilometres (50 miles) by road from the centre of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland, Australia. The body of water held behind the dam is called Lake Wivenhoe.

The Wivenhoe Power Station is situated between the Splityard Creek Dam and Lake Wivenhoe. The Splityard Creek dam is situated in hills adjacent to Lake Wivenhoe and is about 100 metres above it.

During the pumping phase in the operating cycle the generator operates as an electric motor driving the pump to lift water from Lake Wivenhoe to the upper storage of Splityard Creek Dam. When peak electricity demand occurs the flow of water is reversed, flowing from the upper to the lower storage and driving the turbine generator to generate electricity.

The Splityard Creek dam has sufficient capacity for 10 hours of continuous power generation. It takes about 14 hours of pumping to refill it.

The pumped storage power station consists of two circular concrete silos, each of about 32 metres internal diameter. Each of the silos houses a 250MW turbine generator and pump set, giving a total capacity of 500MW.

The power station is unmanned and is controlled remotely from the central operating centre for the Queensland power grid system. All aspects of the operation are monitored by computers within the centre. Twin 275KV transmission lines connect the power station to the State's grid system.

A second hydro-electric power station powered by water discharging from the Wivenhoe Dam into the Brisbane River commenced operation in March, 2003. It has a power output of 4.5MW.