There’s considerable speculation about whether Eraring will indeed close in 2025 … which is the advanced date Origin nominated, as a ‘might close as early as 2025’ undertaking.
On WattClarity here we’ve collated a number of different pieces of analysis by different organisations about this date. Adding to this list today is the report ‘Updated: The Lights Will Stay On: NSW Electricity Plan 2024-2030’ from Clean Energy Finance (with the principal author being Tim Buckley), that was released today (Friday 19th January 2024):
Time permitting, we’ll review with keen interest…
(A) Mainstream media
Following from the release, I’ve noted it discussed in the following mainstream media locations:
1) In the Guardian i have seen:
(a) Friday morning, Peter Hannam wrote ‘NSW can avoid electricity shortages without paying hundreds of millions to keep Eraring open, expert says’ …
(b) Nothing further, at this point
2) On RenewEconomy, I have seen:
(a) Tim Buckley & Annemarie Jonson (both from Clean Energy Finance) wrote ‘Stick to the plan: Lights won’t go out when Eraring closes on schedule’
(b) Nothing further, at this point
3) On the ABC:
(a) Jacqueline Breen conducted an interview with Tim Buckley (from Clean Energy Finance) and Andrew Richards (CEO of EUAA) in ‘Australia’s largest coal-fired power station can safely closely on time, think tank report says’.
(b) Nothing further, at this point
I imagine there will be other references, as well…
(B) Industry organisations
Following from the release, I’ve also seen …
1) The Energy Users Association of Australia …
(a) Noting that Andrew Richards (CEO at EUAA) was part of the ABC interview noted above
2) The Clean Energy Council …
(a) wrote about this analysis in its ‘Daily Dispatch’ email to members.
If the NSW is so confident it doesn’t need Eraring then the answer is simple – the NSW Government should bear all RERT costs. Just one RERT event in Queensland on 1 February 2022 which was only 331 MW for a few hours on one afternoon cost Queensland consumers $50.1 million. The SA Black System event which occurred almost at the close of a working day cost SA businesses hundreds of millions of $. How much are NSW considering paying Eraring to stay open?