Origin Energy is bringing forward the closure of its only coal-fired power plant by seven years to 2025 in a move that will accelerate the reduction in its carbon emissions but has heightened worries about security of supply and rising prices.

The NSW government announced plans to install a “super battery” to help replace the 2880-megawatt Eraring generator in NSW and act as a “shock absorber” in the grid. Eraring, the country’s biggest coal-fired power generator, will now shut down little more than two years after AGL Energy’s Liddell plant.