Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Matthew Kelly

Origin tight lipped on Eraring power station closure as Premier refuses to rule out extension

Origin Energy says it will continue to "assess the market" regarding the closure date of Lake Macquarie's Eraring power station.

It comes as NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet refused to rule out extending the life of the nation's biggest coal-fired power station beyond 2025.

The premier's comments, made on Thursday afternoon, appeared to backflip on his earlier position about the plant's future.

On March 6 Mr Perrottet said he had no plans to intervene in the plant's mid-2025 closure date.

"We have our energy road map. (Intervening in Eraring is) not part of our plans - we have an energy road map that's delivering $32bn of private sector investment to ensure we have a long-term, reliable and clean-energy future," he said.

The company announced in February 2022 that it was bringing forward the closure date for the plant by seven years to August 2025.

But late last year Origin chief executive Frank Calabria suggested Eraring may need to stay open because clean energy infrastructure was not coming online fast enough.

"... however consideration must be given to the cumulative impact of these closures on the market and the prospect of delays to new infrastructure coming online. There may be a requirement to delay the exit of some of these coal units, and only for as long as needed, to maintain the security and reliability of the [grid]," he said.

An Origin spokesman said on Friday that the company was continuing to "assess the market over time".

The construction and commissioning of three super batteries will be a major determining factor in when the 2800 megawatt plant closes.

Final planning approval was received last month for the 850 megawatt Waratah Super Battery at the former Munmorah power station site. The battery is expected to be operational in 2025.

Artist's impression of the Waratah Super Battery. Image NSW Energy Co.

Origin and AGL are also progressing plans for grid scale batteries at the Eraring and Liddell sites.

In February, the Australian Energy Market Operator called for urgent investment in generation, long-duration storage and transmission to achieve energy certainty.

AEMO chief executive Daniel Westerman said timely investment in the grid was needed as Australia ended its traditional dependency on coal-fired generation and faced delays on major projects including Snowy Hydro's Hunter Power Project at Kurri.

A Senate Estimates hearing was told last month that the Hunter Power Project at Kurri would not be fully operational until December 2024, more than 18 months after the closure of Liddell Power Station.

Snowy Hydro's chief executive Dennis Barnes told the hearing that the $600 million project had been hit by construction delays due to bad weather. There was no guarantee that costs and timelines would not blow out further, he said.

To see more stories and read today's paper download the Newcastle Herald news app here.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.