Coal fired Liddell was 2,000MW and Tallawarra B is a 300MW OCGT unit gas “peaking” power plant on the western side of the suburban Lake Illawarra in southern Wollongong. Australia’s first green hydrogen and gas power plant. by Deputy Premier Barilaro 3May21 The hydrogen seems to be just a wish from the Chinese owned Energy Australia to find some future hydrogen fuel from 2025 if they can.
The Hon Angus Taylor MP Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction says “Tallawarra B power station to be built”.
All the above has to be seen in light of –
[1] Increasing revelations of the Green stance of the Premier over last 6 to 9 months.
[2] The surprisingly Green future plans revealed late in 2020 by Energy Minister Matt Keane as NSW pursues a net zero target by 2050.
[3] The appointment of Malcolm Turnbull as some sort of Energy Czar under Minister Keane – an appointment that was quickly reversed after the Upper Hunter byelection(voting is 22nd May) was announced.
[4] NSW has for years been too often an importer of electricity from Queensland.
[5] Note the Deputy Premiers media release say near the end “Jointly underwriting the Queensland-NSW transmission interconnector upgrade with the Commonwealth Government.” Why would taxpayers funds be wasted on this when NSW should generate its own electricity. And we have the Queensland Premier saying in 2020; “NSW has their own hospitals – Queensland hospitals are for Queensland people”.
[6] Closing Liddell and adding Tallawarra B will add stress to NSW gas supplies which have failed power plants in recent years plus NSW has gas exploration bans and the much ballyhooed Narrabri gas proved up by Santos is subject to unrelenting lawfare on many fronts including the pipeline connection to NSW grid.
IMHO NSW needs to strengthen its own capacity to generate 24/7 dispatchable electricity.
Yes, replacing 2GW of generated power with 0.3GW was always such a clever idea. About 3 years ago I came across an AGL exec at a mining conference. When gently asked this very question, he did have the grace to stammer when giving a non-answer. That is cold comfort, of course.
Berejiklian’s most outstanding characteristic has been shown to be sneakiness. Allowing Kean’s idiocy though both Cabinet and the NSW Parliament (both houses) while withholding any useful details on “HOW” says all that is needed.
Should have added, and meant to, that NSW has been shortfalling it’s own power demand by 0.5-1.0GW almost daily now for some years. Q’ld’s black coal generators are picking up the slack, which is why the NSW/Q’ld interconnector is Our Glad’s sneaky way out.
www.nem-watch.info/widgets/reneweconomy/
The total national demand for power is persistently down by 16-18% on a daily basis for some years now. Although C-19 helped push this down, the decrease began over 18 months pre Covid.
This is not an accident. As noted previously, the aim is to reduce consumption, not increase supply.
ABC reports —
Federal government will spend $600 million on new Kurri Kurri gas plant in the NSW Hunter Valley 18May21
Top energy chief tells Australia to get to net zero emissions before 2050
“The level of solar uptake needed to meet the agency’s plan is equivalent to installing the world’s largest solar park roughly every day for the next 10 years.”
www.smh.com.au/world/europe/top-energy-chief-tells-australia-to-get-to-net-zero-emissions-before-2050-20210517-p57sq7.html
Well, that aint gonna happen.
Readers should checkout Open Nem now for NSW – leave it at the default 7 days – marvellous & timely example of how a wind drought last few days is spiking prices and perfect example why Kurri Kurri 660MW gas fired just announced by Feds is needed.
SA and Vic worth a look too.
For the record – see what news emerges on this.
Fire engulfs major substation south of Sydney, with one transformer fully alight 18Jun22
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-18/fire-engulfs-part-of-power-sub-station-in-yallah-south-of-sydney/101165042
Energy Australia at pains to say “fire is not at Tallawarra”
www.energyaustralia.com.au/about-us/media/news/media-statement-transgrids-fire-dapto-substation
Quote –
Media Statement on Transgrid’s fire at Dapto substation
June 18, 2022
Please attribute to an EnergyAustralia spokesperson:
In the afternoon of 18 June 2022, Transgrid reported that one of the redundant transformers at Dapto substation mechanically failed resulting in a contained oil fire.
EnergyAustralia’s gas fired Tallawarra power station is not located on the same site.
Importantly, all of our people are safe.
The incident resulted in Tallawarra power station coming offline for around 2 hours.
The team at Tallawarra safely returned the plant to service at around 5:15pm where we will be there to support the evening peak.
Throughout this period, we have been in regular contact with the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Background
Despite earlier media reports, there was no fire at EnergyAustralia’s Tallawarra power station today.
Yair yair we hear ya