<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/when-the-coal-plant-dont-work-report-counts-6000-hours-of-outages-at-eraring-over-2024/>
"Eraring power station, the New South Wales giant coal plant whose retirement
has been pushed out from this year to at least 2027, experienced around 6,000
hours of outages across its four units over the course of 2024, a new analysis
has found.
The 2.88 gigawatt (GW) coal generator had been due to retire this year, but its
owner, Origin Energy, struck a deal with the NSW government to keep it open
until August 2027, and possibly longer, backed by up to $450 million in state
funding support if needed.
The extension of the coal plant, which holds the title of the largest remaining
in Australia, has been framed around the need for energy reliability as NSW
installs enough renewables and energy storage to cover its exit.
But this line of reasoning has been questioned by energy experts, and put under
doubt by the energy market operator, AEMO, and by Origin, itself, which last
year admitted that Eraring is prone to trips, just when it is needed most and
operating at or near full capacity.
This week’s report from Nexa Advisory underscores these concerns, toting up the
past year’s outages as equivalent to each of the coal plant’s four units being
down for an average of two months, due to a mix of planned maintenance and
unplanned breakdowns.
In line with Origin’s own findings, the Nexa report also brings into question
the plant’s reputation for supplying reliable electricity during periods of
peak demand."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
