The 140 MW combined cycle power plant, Condamine Power Station, is currently under construction in the Murilla Shire region of southern Queensland, and will use coal seam gas as its fuel source.

Gas for the power station will be sourced from gas fields owned and being developed by Queensland Gas Company (QGC) - the largest coal seam gas developer/owner in Australia.

In April 2007, Austrian Energy & Environment (Australia) was awarded a turnkey EPC contract for the design, supply and erection of the Condamine Power Station.

The scope of the contract includes the design, supply and installation of the nominal 140 MW net combined cycle steam and gas turbine power station, foundation and civil works, erection, commissioning and testing.

Commencement of the construction was marked with a sod turning ceremony performed by members of the Barunggam group, the traditional owners of the Condamine Power Station site. Mayor of Murilla Shire, Roderick Gilmour also attended the ceremony. The first stage of the power station is scheduled to be completed by February 2009, when QGC expects to commence commercial sale of open-cycle generated electricity to the National Electricity Market.

The power station will be located on QGC-owned land, 8 km east of Miles on the southern side of the Warrego Highway, close to the fields supplying the power station with its fuel source for ease of transport. The power station and its associated infrastructure will take up around 100 hectares of space.

Condamine will consist of two Siemens SGT-800 gas turbines and two Austrian Energy & Environment heat recovery steam generators which will capture the hot exhausts gases from the gas turbines in order to generate steam.

The steam will then power a steam turbine generator, producing additional electricity without the need of additional fuel.

The power station will also include cooling water systems and a water treatment plant.

The Condamine Power Station will operate 24 hours a day and produce a nominal 140 MW of electricity to the grid.

The power station will feature the first two units of the SGT-800 turbines to be delivered to Australia, as well as the first to be fired on coal seam methane fuel gas.

The power station will generate electricity more efficiently than a coal fired power station and also emit less harmful greenhouse gases. No dust (fly ash) will be produced in the process, adding to the environmental benefits.

The coal seam gas extraction process produces significant quantities of water. In many cases this water cannot be harnessed for use, however, in this project the water is being captured and will be transported to the power station site for use in the electricity production process.

The environmental benefits of using this water are twofold: first, water that would often go to waste is now put to use; and secondly, the process avoids the use of water from other sources such as rivers, surface water flows, or underground bores.

The power station will use proven combined-cycle technology to generate power. In a combined cycle gas turbine plant, a gas turbine generator generates electricity and the waste heat exiting the gas turbine is used to make steam to generate additional electricity.

This technology is more efficient in producing electricity than coal-fired power stations, and also produces significantly less greenhouse gases.

The power station is being built on behalf of ANZ Investment Bank Specialist Asset Management Limited, as trustee for Energy Infrastructure Trust.

The Trust was established to acquire and develop energy related utility and infrastructure assets principally in Australia and New Zealand.

Late last year, AGL Energy signed an agreement with QGC to secure 66 per cent of the output from the power station. AGL managing director Michael Fraser said that the deal, worth approximately $80 million over three years, would take effect in the first quarter of the 2009 calendar year.