Eraring, the nation’s biggest coal-fired power station, may need to delay its closure to ease blackout threats in New South Wales, while other eastern states also face “periods of high risk” because of the slow rollout of renewables, the Australian
“While new generation and storage capacity continues to increase, project development and commissioning delays are impacting reliability throughout the horizon,” said Aemo’s chief executive Daniel Westerman. Federal energy minister Chris Bowen said that the updated report revealed a “dramatically improved outlook on reliability” even before its“There are projects scheduled to commence operating and meet energy demand this summer,” Bowen said. “With Aemo procuring interim reserves we can be confident of ongoing reliability across higher demand periods, even if anticipated projects are delayed.”
The tendered reserves would rise in both states in following years, particularly in NSW. The latter envisages a shortfall of as much as 1.23GW – assuming Eraring shuts as scheduled – with June and July also needing to be covered.