Case Study - Remote Dust Monitoring Helps Protect Community and Environment
Protecting the Surrounding Environment during Hazelwood Power Plant Decommissioning
Once known as Victoria’s dirtiest power station, the Hazelwood Power Station, along with its associated coal mine, was decommissioned in 2017 in the face of mounting public pressure. Rehabilitation of the site commenced shortly after its closure.
As part of the Hazelwood Rehabilitation Project, demolition of the power station and mine infrastructure commenced in mid-2019. Constructed over 50 years ago, the site is known to contain silica, asbestos and other contaminants that, if improperly managed, carry the risk of harming local communities and the surrounding environment. In order to prevent mine dust, demolition dust and asbestos from escaping and affecting surrounding communities, more than 40 real-time dust monitors were needed to be installed around the perimeter of the site, remaining continuously deployed for over 3 years. The costs associated with such a large, long-term project were expected to be gargantuan. This is where Air-Met Scientific was called in to provide a solution.
The Hazelwood Demolition Project revealed a critical gap in the market for cost-effective dust monitors capable of measuring PM10 and PM2.5 simultaneously. Given the volume of monitors required on-site, operators also sought a “set-and-forget” solution with a minimal ongoing maintenance requirement.
With this in mind, Air-Met Scientific’s in-house team of engineers specially designed the AirMetER-DX for the Hazelwood project. Deliberately excluding filter and flow elements from the design, the AirMetER-DX has no requirement for consumables and very few components that required maintenance, cleaning and replacement.
When connected via Bluetooth to the VictronConnect App, the battery system can be monitored, configured, diagnosed and trouble-shooted using a mobile. The VictronConnect app also allows battery status, charge, voltage and other parameters to be viewed anytime. Furthermore, general maintenance of the instrument is so simple that a professional service was only required once every 18 months.
Real-Time Data - Transparency is Key
For over 50 years, the Hazelwood Power Station played a central role in the lives of many local residents in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. Hazelwood’s operators have hence aimed to be as transparent and inclusive as possible during the rehabilitation process.
On top of hosting frequent forums and open community events to give local residents a voice, the ability to provide live dust readings directly to the public was of utmost importance to Hazelwood’s operators.
To support this requirement, the Hazelwood project also saw the market debut of Air-Met’s own Internet of Things (IOT) Cloud Platform: Air-Met Cloud. Air-Met Cloud features customisable dashboards, SMS alerts, asset history, site and user management tools, as well as many other useful features which we have come to know in the era of connected safety.
Most importantly, Air-Met Cloud pushed live data directly to a public website, ensuring air quality information was never withheld from the community.
Providing Hourly Air Monitoring Data to LaTrobe Valley Residents
On the website, each monitor was labelled, colour coded and given a serial number based on its role on the Hazelwood site. Interactive maps allowed users to view live data directly from specific monitors, and measurements were also sorted into PM2.5, PM10 and asbestos for easy navigation.
Made possible by Air-Met Cloud’s extensive customisation options, weekly, daily, and hourly averages were all viewable on the website, providing residents with a thorough snapshot of local air quality conditions at any given time. For further accountability, the website also featured links to the EPA AirWatch site so visitors could compare data gathered from Hazelwood with data from an official government source.
The main structures of the Hazelwood plant have now been decommissioned therefore reducing the need for continuous boundary monitoring provided by our AirMetER-DX stations. We are looking forward to being able to provide monitoring solutions for Greencap in the next phase of the Hazelwood rehabilitation.
