Power stations and mines, like all eligible Australian industrial facilities, have to report their estimated emissions to the Commonwealth. This data is published each year on the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI)
website.
Every year, EPA conducts an NPI Audit Program. As part of this program, EPA conducts an extensive audit on a number of different industrial facilities around Victoria. The audits assess the estimation techniques used by the facilities to generate their annual NPI estimations.
In 2015, EPA audited three power generators (mine and power station operators) in the Latrobe Valley as part of its annual audit program:
· Hazelwood (GDF Suez)
· Loy Yang A (AGL)
· Yallourn (Energy Australia).
EPA selected the Latrobe Valley power generators due to the significant emissions that are produced by these facilities each year and the increased community concern in air quality in the region.
EPA identified some issues with the power generators’ estimation techniques. This included missing emission sources, and calculation errors which resulted in the underestimation or overestimation of emissions. Due to the complex nature of NPI reporting requirements, EPA often identifies these types of issues during its NPI Audit Program.
EPA made a number of recommendations on how each power generator could improve their NPI estimation techniques. As a result, AGL, GDF Suez and Energy Australia made a number of changes to the emission data in their NPI reports.
The NPI report for all eligible Australian industrial facilities is now available at
www.npi.gov.au
While NPI reports are an important source of environmental information for the community, industry and government, EPA Victoria cannot use NPI data as evidence for enforcement activities.