Australia’s longest-running coal-fired power plant will shut down on April 28.
Located in the NSW Hunter Valley, Liddell is also one of the world’s oldest coal-fired power stations. The site’s operating life of almost 52 years is a historic feat considering only one per cent of power stations operate for more than five decades.
According to owners AGL, the station will have produced 430,952 gigawatt hours of power by the time it is shut down.
The closure of Liddell was first announced in 2015, with AGL saying it “believes that the installed capacity and energy output from Liddell is best replaced with lower emissions and more reliable generation, with a longer life span”.
With Liddell closing down, the question on everyone’s minds seems to be: will power prices increase?
According to the ABC, this shouldn’t be ruled out.
While January 2023 saw the NSW Government enact a coal reservation scheme that would see coal companies reserve 10 per cent of their output exclusively for domestic use, the Australian Energy Market Operator has warned that NSW may bear the brunt of reliability risks if a sufficient replacement for Liddell is not put in place before the shut down.
Energy operator AEMO chief executive Daniel Westerman said there was a need for urgent and ongoing investment in renewable energy to reliably meet the needs of Australian homes and businesses.
Once Liddell is decommissioned, it is set to become a part of the Hunter Energy Hub, a new strategy that will provide up to $3 billion in incentives and accelerate the development of the hydrogen industry.