Today’s announcement that Eraring power station will continue operating beyond its scheduled closure until 2029 is a disaster for NSW and Australia’s climate targets.
Greens NSW MLC and spokesperson for Energy, Abigail Boyd, has condemned the decision by Origin Energy to again extend the life of all of Eraring power station’s generators to 2029.
Abigail Boyd, Greens NSW energy spokesperson:
“Today’s decision by Origin Energy to again extend the life of Eraring power station is a direct product of government failure by the NSW Labor government. The government’s lack of ambition and urgency, resulting in the decision to extend Eraring from 2025 to 2027, sent a go slow signal to the market, and this 2029 decision will compound this dangerous failure.
“Keeping any coal power station open longer is a cost-of-living and human health disaster. Not to mention the devastating climate impacts it will cause. This is the reality under a Minns Labor government that simply doesn’t take our climate and environmental responsibilities seriously.
“The prolonged operation of an ageing coal fired power fleet, as well as gas peaking, is the worst thing that can happen to the power bills of energy consumers in this state. These companies keep operating because they want to extract every available dollar in price gouged profits from energy consumers from their ageing and polluting assets.
“If Eraring Power Station is extended for a further two years at full production of 16twh, will contribute to taking us upwards of 50% further away from our legislated emissions reduction targets each year of operation, or around 3.5% of our total emissions budget.
“Despite persistent warnings that NSW is already not on track to achieve our legislated climate targets, the NSW Labor government has been continuing on a business as usual trajectory. Recent policy decisions by the NSW Labor government are actively contrary to our energy security and emissions reduction targets.
“There are enough renewables and power lines on track to be delivered in time to replace Eraring in 2027, but new increased demand imperils system security requirements.
“Origin Energy, in their market announcement, directly referenced risks to system security highlighted by AEMO in its recently released Transition Plan for System Security. That report identified the unmitigated growth in new data centre developments as a key transition risk – large data centres are projected to rapidly become major loads on the system, with over 10 GW lodged connection enquiries (some single data centres exceeding 1 GW) in New South Wales by the end of 2024-25.
“AEMO have said new large inverter based loads, in particular data centres, present system security risks including through power system oscillations, sudden load loss or ramping, transient stability, and increased inertia requirements. But it is these project the NSW Labor government is seeking to expedite, with 23 massive projects in the works under a new fast tracked assessment process.
“Having pushed the NSW Labor government in recent budget estimates hearings, answers I received today to my questions on the impact of data centre developments on NSW climate and environment confirm the NSW Government is pursuing a dramatic ramping up on data centre developments in the stunning absence of any plans or guardrails.
“These decisions are the epitome of the rudderless NSW Minns Labor government, with no vision or plan for the safety, prosperity and wellbeing of the people of NSW.”