Condenser Plinth

A condenser plinth at Wangi Power Station sits in the turbine hall basement directly beneath the turbine pedestal above, the heavy concrete foundation that carried the steam condenser for one of the six Parsons turbo-alternators. The plinth is a large rectangular concrete block with anchor patterns visible across its upper surface; the condenser shell itself has been removed. The plinth shows the staining of decades of condensate dripping along its sides. Pipe stubs in the floor around the plinth mark where the cooling-water lines entered and exited the condenser. The lighting is the bare-bulb perimeter circuit of the basement, supplemented by daylight through floor gratings above.

The six condensers at Wangi each handled the exhaust steam from one of the turbo-alternators above. Cooling water from Lake Macquarie ran through tube banks in the condenser shell at rates of millions of litres per hour, condensing the exhaust steam back to water for return through the feedwater system to the boilers. The cycle ran continuously while the plant was operating. After A Station retired in 1985 and B Station closed in 1986, the condensers stayed in place until equipment removal between 1995 and 1997. The plinths were too integrated with the basement structure to extract; they remain.