Closure of Alinta’s Northern Power Station added up to $250 to last year’s power bills
THE closure of the Northern Power Station added up to $250 to South Australian electricity bills last year, new modelling has revealed.
THE closure of the Northern Power Station added up to $250 to South Australian electricity bills last year, new modelling has revealed.
The average wholesale power price in SA was 23 per cent higher between May 2016 and December 2017 as a result of the coal-fired power plant closing, according to research undertaken for the Energy Security Board.
Alinta shut the 450MW Northern Power Station at Port Augusta in 2016, leaving the state more reliant on electricity generated using gas and imports from Victoria.
“A conservative estimate of the impact on typical South Australian residential retail bills of the higher wholesale spot prices would be in the order of $200 —$250 for 2016/17,’’ a report prepared for federal and state governments said.
State Energy Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the price modelling was consistent with warnings delivered by business leaders and the then Liberal opposition when the power station closed
“It’s exactly what was warned at the time and it’s exactly what the opposition warned at the time,’’ he said.
The researchers found the Northern plant could still have been open at the end of last year if Alinta had been able to lock in long-term power supply contracts.
Major companies which rejected contracts with the Northern Power Station missed out on bargains because the floating “spot price” for electricity rose sharply after the plant closed. Former Labor state treasurer and energy minister Tom Koutsantonis blamed the privatisation of electricity assets for the closure of the Northern and high electricity prices.
The modelling was done as part of the development of the federal Government’s National Energy Guarantee, which could help cut power prices by an average of $550.