Coal dream to fail, says Snowy Hydro chief
Snowy Hydro boss Paul Broad has warned ministers not to bow to the Monash Forum and build a new coal-fired power station.
Snowy Hydro chief executive Paul Broad has warned federal ministers would “do their dough” if they bowed to the self-styled Monash Forum of coalition backbenchers who demand the government build a new coal-fired power station.
Mr Broad said Scott Morrison was correct in saying a new coal-fired plant meeting higher emissions targets than existing ones would not be financially viable.
Mr Broad told The Australian he was not entering the political debate, but making factual observations based on the economics of the energy market that Snowy Hydro had analysed carefully.
“The economics of this do not add up,” he said. “Someone would lose all their money.”
Mr Broad revealed Snowy Hydro, previously owned by the NSW, Victorian and federal governments but in the process of becoming solely owned by Canberra, had at one stage looked at whether it might be worth buying the Liddell power station in NSW, now owned by AGL. But at that stage the ownership structure of Liddell still involved a state-owned stake, and the plan did not proceed.
Mr Broad said Snowy Hydro would not be interested in Liddell today because “now we’re doing Snowy 2.0”, referring to the proposed $4.5 billion pumped-hydro project to store and re-sell solar and wind energy, which is championed by Malcolm Turnbull.
“Our balance sheet can only do so much,” Mr Broad said. “We strongly believe the world has moved over to renewables.”
The Monash Forum believes the government should build a $4 billion “Hazelwood 2.0” power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
The group dubs it “Hazelwood 2.0” in an effort to contrast it with the similar cost of Snowy 2.0. “If the government can intervene to build Snowy 2.0, why not intervene to build Hazelwood 2.0 on the site of the coal-fired power station in Victoria that is now being dismantled?” its manifesto asks. But Mr Broad said the cost of producing electricity from a new coal plant would be $70-$90 per megawatt hour, whereas wind and solar now cost $40-$50 per MW/h.
“World A is a non-decarbonised world,” Mr Broad said. “World B is a decarbonised world. We have moved away from World A. If the Monash group thinks we haven’t, that’s their problem. If they want to build it, they’ll do their dough.”
If the Alinta Energy group were to buy Liddell “we’d love it”, he said. It would add to off-peak supply and make it cheaper to pump water uphill for Snowy 2.0.
