There's more to shutting down Australia's oldest coal-fired power station than flicking a switch.
When it was running at full capacity, Liddell Power Station's four 500 megawatt generators produced about 13 per cent of the state's energy needs.
Generator Number three came offline last year.
The remaining generators will wind down between this weekend and the end of the month.
General manager of the Bayswater and Liddell, Len McLachlan, said shutting down a coal-fired power station at the end of its life was a complex process that occurred in several stages.
"As we enter the final few weeks of operation, the team at Liddell are working hard to ensure the closure process for each unit is executed safely as planned," he said.
"In a sense the process for shutting each unit is as simple as we stop putting wood on the fire - although in practice it is more complex. Power stations like Liddell burn coal in a boiler to heat water to high pressure turning the water into steam, which then spins a turbine and a generator, producing electricity."
Shutting down a unit involves reducing the amount of coal entering the boiler, which slowly extinguishes the boiler furnace. This then slows steam production, gradually decreasing electricity production from the unit, until the unit is desynchronised from the grid.
Once desynchronised, the turbine slows and in approximately one hour, stops spinning.
The unit is then safely out of service.
Over the next six to nine months the units will be decommissioned including disconnecting the power station from the electricity grid.
The plant's demolition, which will be one of the largest industrial demolition projects undertaken in the state, will get underway in early 2024.
It will continue for about two years before the site is reborn as a clean energy hub that will feature an estimated $1 billion-plus portfolio of industries including agriculture, clean energy and firming technologies, composting, coal ash recycling, green metals and advanced manufacturing.
The power plant contains about 70,000 tonnes of metal, including 3000 tonnes of highly valuable non-ferrous metals such as copper and chromium. By comparison, the Sydney Harbour Bridge contains only 50,000 tonnes of steel.
There's also about 120,000 tonnes of concrete that will be crushed and recycled.
Following the plant's closure about 65 per cent of the 180-person Liddell workforce will move to the neighbouring Bayswater generator.
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