Unreliable coal a risk to energy supply, report finds

“The main risk to reliable supply in Victoria is the demonstrated unreliability of all three of Victoria’s brown coal generators” reads the summary of the report from Victoria Energy Policy Centre, released today.

Older power stations Yallourn and Loy Yang A have had “a trend of consistently high outage” in the last few years, the report found (PDF).

“It’s clear we cannot keep relying on these polluting brown coal power stations,” said Environment Victoria Campaigns Manager Dr Nicholas Aberle. “We need a plan to phase out coal and to support affected workers and communities to benefit from new jobs and a more diverse regional economy with a long-term future.”

This report also shows a perverse side effect of our energy market. Because there is no price on pollution from coal power stations, building more renewable energy in Victoria doesn’t necessarily replace highly polluting brown coal in Victoria. According to this analysis, it actually pushes out slightly less polluting black coal generators in NSW and Queensland first.

Read the story from Environment Victoria - “Unreliable coal a risk to energy supply, report finds.”