EnergyAustralia to shut Yallourn coal-fired plant in 2028, build giant battery (updated)
10/03/2021 01:30
* Yallourn power station to shut by mid-2028
* Closure will cut EnergyAustralia's carbon emissions by 60%
* EnergyAustralia to build huge battery to back up
renewables
(Adds EnergyAustralia MD's comments)
By Sonali Paul
MELBOURNE, March 10 (Reuters) - EnergyAustralia, Australia's
third largest power retailer, said on Wednesday it will shut its
ageing Yallourn coal-fired power station in 2028, four years
earlier than previously flagged, as it looks to speed up a push
to cleaner energy.
The move comes as experts say Australia's coal-fired power
plants, which generate around 55% of the country's electricity,
will become increasingly financially strapped due to an influx
of wind and solar farms which have driven down power prices.
"The energy market transition is real, and it's happening
fast. It's fair to say it's happening faster than most people
forecast," EnergyAustralia Managing Director Catherine Tanna
told reporters.
EnergyAustralia, a unit of Hong Kong's CLP Holdings
0002.HK , will shut the 1,450-megawatt (MW) Yallourn power
station by mid-2028. The 100-year-old plant is the oldest power
station in Victoria state and supplies about 22% of its
electricity.
It also plans to build a 350 MW battery with four hours of
capacity, which would be bigger than any battery operating in
the world today, at its Jeeralang site, also in Victoria, by
2026 to boost supply of "dispatchable", or steady and flexible
power.
The shutdown of Yallourn will cut EnergyAustralia's carbon
emissions by 60% from today's level, helping the company meet
its target to be carbon neutral by 2050, Tanna said.
(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Leslie Adler and
Muralikumar Anantharaman)
((Sonali.Paul@thomsonreuters.com; +61 407 119 523;))