{"id":339655,"date":"2024-08-15T10:13:29","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T08:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=339655"},"modified":"2024-08-15T10:13:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T08:13:31","slug":"smart-but-deceptive-nsw-govt-keeps-big-coal-plant-on-until-just-after-the-next-election-to-avoid-3b-electricity-bill-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=339655","title":{"rendered":"Smart but deceptive: NSW govt keeps big coal plant on until just after the next election to avoid $3b electricity bill shock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Hiding the costs of renewables until after the next election<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The largest coal plant in Australia was supposed to close in August next year, but the NSW government decided to buy a two year extension until a few months after the next state election.  Now the modeling comes out showing that they decided to keep the Eraring coal plant running to prevent the shocking price spikes from disturbing the voters. Keeping the coal plant will reduce wholesale electricity bills by a few billion dollars. (Why don\u2019t we keep it open for ten years?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presumably his reelection chances would be worse if \u201csaved the planet\u201d, and shut the coal plant a few months before<\/em> the election instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They know the voters don\u2019t want the transition. They know it will cost more. And yet they do it anyway\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bizarrely, this news comes from the renewable industry site Reneweconomy<\/em>, where Giles Parkinson doesn\u2019t seem to notice this shows coal power is cheap and renewables are hideous. Apparently  he doesn\u2019t mind inflicting costs on hapless homeowners, he is just bummed that they couldn\u2019t force more unreliable energy and battery packs on the grid even sooner:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NSW confirms Eraring closure delay driven by fear of pre-election price shocks<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The NSW state Labor government has confirmed that its controversial decision to delay the closure of the country\u2019s biggest coal fired power generator at Eraring was primarily driven by concerns over a possible jump in wholesale electricity prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2.88 gigawatt (GW) Eraring facility on the central coast was due to close on August, 2025, but under an underwriting deal with the state government which could be worth up to $450 million, Origin Energy will now keep at least two units open until August, 2027, a few months after the next state election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delaying the closure of Eraring even longer until 2028 could save $4.4 billion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modelling that the Minns government relied upon \u2013 produced by Endgame Economics and ICA Partners \u2013 has now been released (or at least bits of it) \u2013 and confirms that the greatest benefit of the delayed closure would come from lower prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A summary of the Endgame analysis tabled in parliament on Tuesday suggests that the savings on wholesale market prices would total $4.4 billion, with a relatively small benefit of $300 million allocated to increased energy security and $200 million for avoided system strength measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report says this would outweigh the $1.1 billion negative benefits from higher emissions resulting from the burning of more coal, and other costs of $600 million, including $400 million in payments to Origin. Overall, it puts the net benefits at $3.2 billion to $3.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More bizarrely, Giles Parkinson argues that the futures market is predicting even higher prices than the modelers are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
NSW Futures prices Electricity: NEM Review<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He views this train-wreck as a bad situation caused by Big Market Players exploiting the market, and they absolutely are. But he doesn\u2019t admit that if we weren\u2019t trying to ram a fake transition down everyone\u2019s circuits with unreliable generators, the Predators wouldn\u2019t have nice juicy price spikes to prey on (and subsidized cushions to land on).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the true genius of all communists-at-heart Giles Parkinson tells us this has nothing to do with prices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, this had nothing to do with the actual cost of generation or the prospect of a supply shortfall, it was simply lack of competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Giles has no idea what competition even is. If more coal power was competing we\u2019d still have cheap electricity. The market he wants is not a free market, it\u2019s just a different kind of Soviet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So warn the voters of New South Wales. The Chris Minns Labor government is trying to hide the cost of the unreliables until after the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eraring photo by Nick Pitsas, CSIRO<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The largest coal plant in Australia was supposed to close in August next year, but the NSW government decided to buy a two year extension until a few months after the next state election. Now the modeling comes out showing that they decided to keep the Eraring coal plant running to prevent the shocking price spikes from disturbing the voters. Keeping the coal plant will reduce wholesale electricity bills by a few billion dollars. (Why don\u2019t we keep it open for ten years?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":339661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818216,691819316,691821985],"class_list":{"0":"post-339655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-coal-plant","10":"tag-new-south-wales-nsw","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image-295.png?fit=1356%2C668&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1qmj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":380236,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=380236","url_meta":{"origin":339655,"position":0},"title":"Renewable Push Sends Aussie Electricity Prices Skyrocketing","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/05\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen blames householders for not shopping around for the cheapest deal.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0ChatGPT-Image-27.-Mai-2025-08_53_40.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":330030,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=330030","url_meta":{"origin":339655,"position":1},"title":"Not Zero? 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