AGL’s plan to replace Liddell is cheaper and cleaner than keeping it open

The Commonwealth government called last week for AGL Energy to consider selling its Liddell power station to rival Alinta.

AGL has promised to replace the power generated
 by Liddell with a mix of other sources.

Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has raised concerns that the scheduled 2022 shutdown of Liddell will affect New South Wales’ energy reliability. It’s suggested the sale would provide a way to keep the ageing power station open past the end of its normal 50-year operating life.

However, AGL responded to government concerns in December 2017 by releasing a replacement plan. Liddell’s theoretical maximum output is 1,800 megawatts (MW), but the firm capacity – the power that can be relied upon at peak time – is 1,000 MW. AGL is confident this can be replaced by a mix of improved efficiency, renewables and demand response.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a Senior Research Consultant from Sydney’s University of Technology, Kriti Nagrath -  “AGL’s plan to replace Liddell is cheaper and cleaner than keeping it open.”

Josh Frydenberg lobbies AGL board to force Liddell power plant sale

The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has all but confirmed he had personally lobbied board members of AGL Energy in an effort to force a sale of the ageing Liddell power plant.

The Liddell coal-fired power plant in NSW. 

Sources have told Guardian Australia Frydenberg has been calling individual board members in an effort to crash through management opposition to offloading the coal-fired facility in New South Wales to a competitor, the Hong Kong-owned Alinta Energy, which is looking to expand its market share.

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, contacted the chairman of the company last Tuesday.

Read Katherine Murphy’s story from The Guardian - “Josh Frydenberg lobbies AGL board to force Liddell power plant sale.”

'Rings hollow': Keeping Liddell plant open longer not the way to go, poll finds

Barely one in five voters surveyed want to see the Liddell power station's life extended by either the federal government forcing owners AGL Energy or using public funds to do so, a new poll has found.

AGL says keeping Liddell Power Station open
a further five years from its scheduled closure in
 2022 would cost in the order of $500 million.

The ReachTEL survey of 2176 respondents conducted nationwide for the Climate Council last Wednesday, found even Liberal voters were roughly split – 40 to 39 per cent – over whether a Clean Energy Target that favoured renewable energy was the best approach rather than government fiat or subsidies.

Labor and Greens voters overwhelmingly supported a renewable energy approach rather than extending the Hunter Valley plant's life. About 29 per cent of One Nation supporters, though, backed forcing AGL to keep it open.

"The public has made its mind up on Liddell – and more broadly on the future energy direction of the country," Amanda McKenzie, chief executive of the Climate Council, said. "Australians understand the future is clean energy, whether on cost or environmental grounds.”

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “'Rings hollow': Keeping Liddell plant open longer not the way to go, poll finds.”

Solar steps up as coal steps down

Large-scale solar power will inevitably catch up in cost competitiveness with conventional electricity generation in Australia and will "fill the void" as dirty, ageing coal-fired plants are shut down, according to the regional head of the country's biggest solar developer, First Solar.

Jack Curtis, Asia Pacific manager for First Solar, AGL Energy's partner at two major new solar ventures in western NSW, said the company had set up a low-cost local supply chain for key equipment, which would drive down the cost of future projects.

Speaking after the formal opening of the Nyngan and Broken Hill solar plants on Wednesday, Mr Curtis said costs for large-scale solar had already fallen about 30 per cent from 3-4 years ago, to about $120 per megawatt-hour on the back of only a few projects.

Read Angela Macdonald-Smith’s story in today’s Age - “Solar power to 'fill the void' as coal power plants close: First Solar.”

AGL's energy climate change commitments take heat our AGM

A

GL Energy's latest climate change commitments have taken the heat out of a shareholder resolution to be put to the annual general meeting on Wednesday, but the company is still under pressure to show how it will live up to its pledges while attention is turning to rival Origin Energy to follow suit.

The commitments adopted by the country's biggest carbon emitter, announced last Friday, leave coal seam gas as the main bone of contention between environmental activists and AGL, with protesters set to target the AGM to show opposition to the controversial Gloucester project in NSW's mid-north.

They have also exposed the policy vacuum that energy companies are operating in as they seek to preserve value in their electricity and gas supply businesses in a world moving more firmly to capping carbon.

Read Angela Macdonald-Smith’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “AGL Energy deflects climate change heat ahead of AGM”.