Finance, climate, and energy experts have weighed in on the decision to extend the closure of Origin’s coal-fired Eraring Power Station until April 2029, saying it will see increased climate pollution, price spikes, unreliability, and uncertainty.
The 43-year-old Eraring Power Station had more than 6,000 hours (250 days) of planned and unplanned outages in 2024, which were a key driver of major power price spikes.
Climate Councillor and energy sector expert Associate Professor Joel Gilmore said, “This is why we need to accelerate the roll out of renewable energy so that we don’t keep dipping back into the destructive well of fossil fuels.
“Every year we extend a coal plant we increase the risks of relying on an ageing and unreliable facility. The evidence is clear that once these plants get beyond 40 years of age they increasingly start to fail, and that is an expensive risk and a dangerous one, particularly at this time of year when they are more prone to outages just when people most need to know they can rely on power.
Related article: Origin to keep Eraring running until 2029
“Eraring is the next coal plant of many that is reaching the end of its life in New South Wales and we can’t keep extending these banged-up old jalopies at huge financial and environmental cost to each and every one of us.”
Nexa Advisory CEO Stephanie Bashir said, “Eraring is effectively shutting itself down. While an extension to 2029 may not be surprising, it is disappointing. This situation is the direct result of a failure of the NSW Government to move with urgency to approve and deliver replacement renewable generation, transmission and storage at the pace required.
“The NSW Government’s claim that taxpayers haven’t paid a dollar is disingenuous. Consumers are paying through the nose as high wholesale prices are locked in by delays to new renewable supply and the growing unreliability of coal plants that should already be on the way out.
“Every delay in getting renewables and storage online is another excuse to keep ageing coal plants running longer than planned—and every extension comes with a price tag for consumers.
“If the NSW Government is serious about lowering power bills and keeping the light on, it must fast-track replacement renewables, fix the blocks on transmission build and stop normalising coal extensions as the default option.”
Climate Energy Finance founder and director Tim Buckley said the decision to extend Eraring’s closure reflected a “total failure of planning by Origin”.
“Origin Energy has failed to build any replacement generation capacity despite knowing for decades Eraring is due for closure,” Buckley said.
“But the reality is that the permanent sustainable solution is to build distributed and utility scale renewable energy firmed by batteries at speed and scale, ignoring the small but noisy minority trying to hold back the energy system transformation.
“We need permanent solutions—new capacity—at speed and scale, not yet more bandaids on unreliable end-of-life coal plant clunkers.”
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) lead analyst for Australian electricity Johanna Bowyer said continual coal life extensions was creating uncertainty among renewable energy investors.
Related article: Queensland’s Callide C suffers yet another outage
“Eraring was already extended once, extending it for another two years undermines certainty right when investors in new replacement generation need clarity,” she said.
“NSW needs to move faster on renewables and transmission to make sure coal is replaced in a timely manner.
“Clear, credible coal closure dates are essential if we want new clean energy built on time.
“Extending coal plant lifespans before fully utilising lower-cost, cleaner options like energy efficiency and appliance upgrades in NSW homes is a missed opportunity.
“The original agreement between the NSW Government and Origin Energy, which left open the option for Eraring to run until 2029, has prolonged uncertainty about the plant’s closure.”
