Located in South East Queensland, about 80km from Brisbane, the Wivenhoe Dam is the region’s largest water storage and is the main water supply for Brisbane and greater Ipswich. Wivenhoe was first built in 1984, designed by the Water Resources Commission as a solution for providing a safe and reliable water supply for the region as well as managing flood mitigation. The dam’s removable gate allows SEQ water to make controlled water releases during times of heavy rain, with the dam storing a whopping 3.132 million megalitres of water.
In 2018, McElligotts was engaged by CS Energy to work on the $11.8 million overhaul of Unit 2 at the Wivenhoe Power Station. The power station, part of the Wivenhoe Dam, sits between the Splityard Creek Dam and Lake Wivenhoe and is the only pumped storage hydroelectric plant in Queensland. Its purpose is to drive the pump to lift water from Lake Wivenhoe to the upper storage of the Splityard Creek Dam to generate electricity. When demand for electricity peaks, the pump reverses the flow of water to the lower storage, driving the turbine to generate electricity. There are only two generating units part of Wivenhoe, each having a combined capacity of 570MW.
During the project, McElligotts worked in collaboration with CS Energy employees and other contractors including MHPS, Cleanaway and In Place Machining who all worked over 54,300 hours on the job. At its peak, the project had 120 workers on site including the power station’s permanent workforce of 11 and 109 external contractors. The project was scheduled to run from 3 April – 3 July, however the team worked hard and delivered the project early, making the power station ready for commercial use on 26 June.
McElligotts are proud to have worked on a piece of infrastructure that plays such an imperative role in Queensland’s electricity production. We would like to thank CS Energy for placing their trust in our work, along with the teams at MHPS, Cleanaway and In Place Machining for being a pleasure to work alongside.