Latrobe Valley community organisations have benefited from significant donations as a result of funds raised during a recent AGL Loy Yang power station outage.The AGL Loy Yang safety awareness scheme conducted during major outages on generating units aims to encourage safe work practices by making donations to selected charities if safety standards are met.

The 55-day, $60 million outage on Loy Yang’s Unit Four was successfully concluded last week. A total of $45,000 was raised and has been presented to five critical local services, thanks to a combined effort from AGL, Lend Lease, Siemens, Yokogawa and TWPS employees.

Beneficiaries of the 2014 safety awareness scheme are:

  • Gippsland Lifeline - $10,000 from AGL Loy Yang
  • Latrobe Regional Hospital Chemotherapy ward - $10,000 from Siemens
  • Morwell State Emergency Services - $10,000 from Lend Lease
  • Latrobe Regional Hospital Cancer Care Centre - $10,000 from Yokogawa
  • Statewide Autistic Services Newborough - $5,000 from TWPS

The $45,000 target was met by all work groups complying with work safety and management requirements during the outage. Almost 2,050 safety activities, including safety audit inspections, were conducted. The outage involved approximately 920 personnel, including 800 AGL Loy Yang and contractor employees working an estimated 300,000 work hours on site. It has also delivered a micro economic benefit to the local region of up to $25 million.

AGL Loy Yang Head of Generation, John Stewart commended the outage workforce on their high levels of vigilance and co-operation throughout the project.

“A range of new safety initiatives were introduced during the Unit Four outage. The measures were embraced by the entire workforce and statistics indicate they have all contributed to the achievement of key safety objectives.

“Safety is a critical element of any outage and the safety awareness scheme provides us with an important opportunity to partner with our workforce, contractors and the community to make a difference.”

Mr Stewart said that while the outage was critical to ensuring the safe and reliable operation of Unit Four until its next scheduled major outage in 2019, it also marked the completion of a seven year, multi-million dollar project to convert all of AGL Loy Yang’s operating units from an ageing analogue system to a state-of-the-art digital control system.

The AGL Loy Yang safety awareness scheme has raised almost $350,000 for worthy community causes over the past decade.

Unit Four major outage safety awareness scheme presentation 2014

Representatives of Latrobe Valley organisations who benefited from a $45,000 safety incentive scheme with AGL Loy Yang, Siemens, Lend Lease, Yokogawa and TWPS representatives.

About AGL

AGL is one of Australia's leading integrated renewable energy companies and is taking action toward creating a sustainable energy future for our investors, communities and customers. Drawing on 175 years of experience, AGL operates retail and merchant energy businesses, power generation assets and an upstream gas portfolio. AGL has one of Australia's largest retail energy and dual fuel customer bases. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, landfill gas and biomass. AGL is Australia's largest private owner and operator of renewable energy assets and is looking to further expand this position by exploring a suite of low emission and renewable energy generation development opportunities.