The Geelong B power station was of 30,000 kilowatt (30 MW) capacity and located at North Geelong on the edge of Corio Bay. It was also the largest power station in Victoria outside the Latrobe Valley. The plant was officially opened by Honourable J.W. Galbally MLC, Minister in Charge of Electrical Undertakings, on 8 October 1954.
Geelong B was a 'packaged' station from components imported from the United States of America and was erected under contract for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria. The contract included the supply and erection of buildings, boilers, generators, transformers, switchgear and coal handling equipment, and putting the station into service.
The power station was of unusual design, with no conventional boiler house, the boilers being out of doors except for the boiler operating face, which helped to reduce building costs. Each of the three boilers was connected to a generator of 10,000 kW capacity. Cooling water for the power station was drawn from Corio Bay, and most of the power generated was used by local industry.
The boilers were automatically controlled, and produced 110,000 pounds of steam per hour (50 Mg/h) at 625 psi (4.3 MPa). Fuel was moved by belt bucket and scraper conveyors to the fuel bunkers, then delivered to the boilers by mechanical spreader stokers.
The fuel used was brown coal purchased by the SECV from Wensley Brae open cut main at Winchelsea, but from 1960 better quality coal was purchased from a mine at Anglesea instead. (The Anglesea mine is now used to fuel the adjacent Anglesea Power Station that opened in 1969.) A third change in fuel supplied occurred soon after, with the boilers being converted to use briquettes brought to Geelong by rail from Yallourn.
By the 1960s the power station was only used to meet peak loads due to the high operating cost, and the station was closed in 1970 when newer power stations were opened in the Latrobe Valley.
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