As part of the project, AGL has executed a contract with Siemens Australia to deliver and maintain the DCS and a simulator training facility.

AGL Macquarie general manager Ian Brooksbank said the new DCS will enhance safety, improve power station reliability and enable the plant to operate more efficiently.

“It will transform how we operate the plant and perform as a business,” he said.

“Our employees will be using world-leading technology to operate one of Australia’s largest and most important power stations.”

The capital and maintenance investment was first identified in 2014 at the time AGL purchased Macquarie Generation.

Installation of the DCS is expected to start in September 2017 during a major maintenance outage on Bayswater Unit 1, and continue on successive planned unit outages until late 2019.

Bayswater power station was commissioned in 1985-86 and consists of four generating units with a total capacity of 2,640 MW.

Bayswater produces approximately 15,000 GWh of electricity per annum, or enough to power two million average Australian homes.

AGL Macquarie’s Bayswater and Liddell power stations combined supply approximately 30 percent of electricity demand in NSW.