Coal shutdown risks bill shock

Angela Macdonald-Smith and Jacob Greber

Updated Feb 18, 2022 – 11.43am, first published at Feb 17, 2022 – 6.19pm

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Energy minister Angus Taylor has slammed his NSW counterpart Matt Kean’s reliance on batteries as “delusional”, amid fresh fears energy prices will spike after Origin Energy’s shock decision to close the country’s biggest coal-fired power plant seven years early.

Origin’s 2880-megawatt Eraring generator on NSW’s Central Coast – responsible for 20 per cent of the state’s electricity needs – will shut down in August 2025, just two years after AGL Energy’s scheduled Liddell closure wipes out a major chunk of base load capacity relied on by industry.

Angela Macdonald-Smith writes on the resources industry with a focus on energy, including gas, oil, electricity and renewables.

Jacob Greber writes about politics, economics and business from Canberra. He has been a Washington correspondent and economics correspondent.