Delaying the scheduled closure of Eraring Power Station and other coal-fired generators could add thousands of dollars to consumer bills and set back the rollout of clean energy generation and storage infrastructure, a new report has found.
The Nexa Advisory report, Eraring can be closed on schedule, found that delaying the closure of the 2800 megawatt plant (scheduled to close in 2025) and the nearby Vales Point power station (scheduled to close in 2029) could add up to $6,000 to consumer bills over the next two decades.
The plant's future has been in the national spotlight in recent weeks amid concerns that its looming closure will lead to a shortfall of baseload power.
But Nexa Advisory said research from Endgame Economics indicated consumer bills would be $2250-$3000 higher over the next 10 years if the closure of Eraring and smaller generator Vales Point was delayed.
"The current slow pace of Australia's clean energy transition - generation, storage and transmission build and connection - may well necessitate delays to the closure of coal-fired power stations," the Nexa report says.
"This would shore up reliability in the near term, but would result in higher costs and emissions over the long term. The better approach would be to accelerate the rate at which we deploy new clean energy resources. This would negate or minimise the need to extend the lifespan of coal-fired power stations, and leave energy users and the nation much better off in coming years."
The report says a pipeline of 4.3 gigawatts of committed and anticipated projects, and a further 32 gigabytes of proposed projects were more than enough to fill the gap created by Eraring's closure.
"Prioritising and accelerating the connections of these projects will provide investor certainty for financial close and facilitate timely commissioning," the report says.
"It is not too late to take the necessary actions to get back on track - if we act now and work fast, we can meet build targets and achieve the current schedule of coal-fired power station retirements."
Eraring's owner Origin Energy brought forward the plant's closure by seven years to August 2025 last year. However, company chief executive Frank Calabria has since acknowledged it may need to remain open longer to support the clean energy transition.
Origin signed a $18.7 billion takeover deal with Brookfield Asset Management and MidOcean Energy in March
Brookfield has said that, while it was keen to progress the plant's closure, it did not want consumers to be adversely affected.
The Nexa report follows another study by Climate Energy Finance last week that showed that closing Eraring and Vales Point on time was very feasible, despite lobbying from fossil fuel groups to keep it open.
