Spencer Street Power Station (Greater Melbourne, Victoria)

 production, power station

Spencer Street Power Station was a Victorian era coal fired power station which operated on Spencer Street in central Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Opened in 1892, it was closed in 1982, and in 2006 demolition commenced.

Spencer Street Power Station was built by the City of Melbourne to supply electricity to the city. From 1941 the station came under the management of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria as part of the state electricity network. Progressive upgrades saw the capacity of the station rise to 109 MW by the 1960s, but newer power stations in the Latrobe Valley saw the station retained for peak use only.

After closure the power station sat empty awaiting redevelopment. In 2003 a man was arrested for painting the slogan 'No jobs on a dead planet' onto the chimney. A girl died in 2004 after falling down a seven metre hole inside the power station.

In May 2006 the site was sold for $7.6 million to Russian developers Vladimir Stepanov, Dmitri Bril and Oleg Mogilnitskiy, with asbestos removal and demolition commencing soon after to allow the redevelopment of the site. The historic tower started being dismantled in September 2007 and the site was fully cleared in April 2008.