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| BACK HOME CENTRAL POWER STATION (CPS.) WORLDS LARGEST DIESEL POWER PRODUCER--It was the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, and having an output greater than any other diesel engine power station in the world, the Central Power Station (correctly but rarely known as the Western New South Wales Electric Power Propriety Ltd) was the nerve centre of the Broken Hill mining industry. The company was officially incorporated on August 25, 1930. Ten months later its engines had taken over the main electrical loads of Broken Hill Mines. The first engine was started and loaded on June 27, 1931. A scheme for mine's electric and compressed air supply was first proposed in mid 1927 by F.J. Mars (later to become the company's first General Superintendent). Investigations and plant design were completed one year later, and after a further year (July 1929) contracts for the engines were let. Excavations for the plant and buildings commenced in November 1929 (in 1930 the Tarrawingee line was reopened to convey metal from the quarries at Tarrawingee for the construction of the Central Power Station). The first diesel engine arrived at Port Pirie from Sulzer Bros in Switzerland on October 26, 1930 and by New Year's Eve in the same year it had been erected, ready to run in the Central Power Station. Four diesel air compressors, from English manufacturers were also installed in the Central Power Station, the first of these going into service in 1931. The introduction of the compressed air was marred by tragedy in which Edgar Hugh Gilbert, assistant Superintendent and Charles Pett, special mechanic, were killed when a compressor blew up. At intervals until 1948, three machines were installed in the CPS Station A. Then the construction of Station B was commenced, being completed in 1952 and incorporating four diesel generators and five diesel compressors. With the grid power supply line now complete the companies reached an agreement with ELCOM to link the grid supply at Darlington Point. New South Wales, with Red Cliffs, Victoria and to supply on a continuous basic the power requirements of the mines. The last engine at the Central Power Station was shut down on Friday August 1, 1986, bringing to a close 55 years of continuous power generation and compressed air delivery to the local mining companies END |
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