Another station down – to what extent due to local factors?

The Tamar Valley power station was conceived in an environment where demand across the NEM was growing, where merchant generators were a possibility, when it was envisaged that there’d be multiple competing participants operating in Tasmania, and where water was increasingly scarce.

The environment today is significantly different from the above, so it was not really a surprise to read the note this morning of the mothballing of the Tamar Valley combined-cycle power station.

Editor’s Note about a Correction
Please see these later comments with respect to Tamar Valley combined cycle plant to understand the specific error in the statement above.

As can be seen in this trend from NEM-Review, the station (when operated by Aurora Energy) had been producing at a fairly consistent average monthly output of 200MW (or about 15% of the average demand for the state).   Now transferred to Hydro Tasmania as part of a broader slew of changes, the station appears to be surplus  to the needs of the larger portfolio available to the generator.

Trended output of Tamar Valley Power Station, as another station closes in the NEM

We noted recently about the possibility that Wallerawang might be withdrawn from the market shortly, a victim of declining scheduled demand – these same factors will also have played a role in the decision for Tamar Valley (though we suspect that there are also local factors at work, as well).


About the Author

Paul McArdle
One of three founders of Global-Roam back in 2000, Paul has been CEO of the company since that time. As an author on WattClarity, Paul's focus has been to help make the electricity market more understandable.

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