Delving deeper into coal unit (re) starts over >17 years … January 2010 to March 2026
For several reasons (including thoughts on Energy Security with the War in the Middle East) we take an updated and deeper trended look at coal unit starts.
coal unit outage
A series of articles published and tagged with ‘coal unit outage’. These outages might be either:
1) Planned far in advance
2) Not planned far in advance (in which case there are several sub-categories of outage here).
Charting the 4-second data following trip of Callide C3 and C4
The trip coincided with the drop in frequency, which happened at the start of the dispatch interval.
How many coal units in NSW expected to be available on Thursday evening 18th December 2025?
One factor in the forecast LOR3 we're currently seeing for NSW on Thursday evening 18th December 2025 is that 4 of 12 coal units in NSW are offline (and another has a story).
System frequency during simultaneous trips at YWPS3 and YWPS4 on Thursday 16th October 2025
System frequency remained within the NOFB, appears well managed given the supply loss approached 600 MW.
Short-notice outage at Loy Yang A4 in Victoria on Wednesday 15th October 2025
At 09:06 (NEM time) this ‘Notifications’ widget alert from ez2view flags Loy Yang A4 coming offline ... which helps explain the directions for System Strength.
VP5 into the Planned part of it’s lengthy Unplanned-Planned-Unplanned outage
On my commute this morning (Friday 3rd Oct 2025), I noticed this update on LinkedIn yesterday evening from the team at Delta Electricity, speaking about their annual shutdown at Vales Point 5.
Wobbles at Yallourn unit 4
A brief look at recent operational challenges at Yallourn unit 4.
Outage at Vales Point unit 5 extended – return to service now not expected until 15th December 2025
Subsequent to earlier article about VP5, the expected duration of the outage pushed out by more than a month.
Vales Point unit 5 (partly unplanned) outage – return to service currently expected 9th November 2025
On Tuesday 26th August 2025 the VP5 unit came offline, with rebid reasons suggesting that ‘turbine vibrations’ were a factor. We take a look ~10 days later.
Unplanned outage on Yallourn Unit 2 extended another ~month (with new RTS expectation 22nd October 2025)
As a further update on outage expectation for the damaged YWPS2 (which tripped with 'LP turbine issue' on Tue 26th August) the latest return to service expectation is now not until 22nd October 2025.
Frequency change with Yallourn unit 2 trip
We assess whether the trip at Yallourn 2 on 26 August 2025 was large enough to drive a frequency disturbance.
Several coal units offline (on Wednesday 27th August 2025) with unplanned outages
A short note with a snapshot of the ‘Generator Outages’ widget in ez2view (at 08:30 on Wed 27th Aug 2025) to highlight some coal units offline.
Frequency change associated with coal generation events
System frequency shows improved resilience to sudden coal generation events since 2020.
The frequency of coal generation events in 2025
A count of coal generator events indicates large unit trips are less frequent.
Three units at Yallourn Power Station offline on Monday morning 16th June 2025
Taking a look at the three of the Yallourn Units offline on Monday morning 16th June 2025.
Trading Places … BW01 offline, with BW04 online
With BW04 returned to service on Sat 14th June 2025, worth noting that sibling unit BW01 came offline on Sunday afternoon 15th June 2025.
A short-lived return to service for Yallourn unit 4
Worth a short note on Thursday 12th June 2025 to highlight the short-lived return to service at YWPS4:
Unplanned outage at YWPS3 (tube leak) extended (due to air duct collapse)
Yallourn unit 3 came offline for a tube leak - but ABC reports (on Mon 9th June 2025) that 'an air duct in unit three collapsed during maintenance', so we take an initial look.
A quick look at system frequency, with 2 x coal units offline overnight into Saturday 31st May 2025
It’s fitting to book-end the week with a look at frequency performance overnight (into Saturday 31st May 2025) with two coal unit outages in NSW overnight to see what happened in terms of more ‘old style’ frequency disruption.
Unplanned outage at Callide C3 extended by 3 days – to Monday 2nd June 2025
A short note to flag this 3-day extension to the unplanned outage at Callide C3.