War of words as energy crisis heats up

Energy market expert dismisses Daniel Andrews’s claim that renewable energy is ‘more reliable’ than coal.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: AAP

A leading energy market expert has dismissed Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’s claim renewable energy is “more reliable” than coal-fired power, saying the state’s key problem­ is a lack of supply following the closure of the Hazelwood coal-fired plant in 2017.

Grattan Institute energy program director Tony Wood’s comments came as data showed that at the peak of its heatwave at 3pm on Wednesday, Victoria was generating 55.1 per cent of its energy from brown coal, compared with 16.3 per cent from wind and solar.

Gas accounted for 13.5 per cent of generation and hydro 15.1 per cent, according to national energy market data from NEMWatch for energy analyst RenewEconomy.

On Wednesday, Mr Andrews blamed ageing coal-fired generators for forecast blackouts, saying: “The problem with coal-fired power is when you need it most it is the least reliable … that’s why we are investing like no other government in renewable energy.”

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio dug in on Thursday, ahead of a forecast December record temperature of 44C on Friday, saying: “The biggest risk to power supply this summer is our ageing coal-fired power plants failing us when we need them most, just like they did last summer.”

“Renewables are more reliable, faster to build and cheaper to run — that’s why we’re pumping more of them into our energy grid as fast as we can.’’

Her office said the amount of power generated by wind and solar was “very conservatively calculat­ed, to factor in weather variability and limitations”.

Mr Wood said hot weather had negative consequences for all forms of energy generation.

“Coal-fired power stations can get overheated, depending to some extent on how they’re maintained, but you’ll also find that over extended hot periods you’ll get lower outputs from wind farms because the wind drops,” he said.

 

“We also know that the output of solar panels reduces when you get really hot weather, and that the transmission network fails when you get really hot weather. To blame any particularly tech­nology which you happen to not like, I don’t think is very helpful.”

Mr Wood said the key issue for Victoria was insufficient supply of energy, particularly from dispatchable baseload sources. “We do know the closure of Hazelwood in 2017 removed a large amount of energy, which has not only put price­s up, but reduced the buffer between supply and demand, and that’s not been fully replaced with equivalent energy,” he said.

French energy giant Engie closed Hazelwood, in the Latrobe Valley, following the Andrews government’s decision to triple its brown coal royalty and increase the state’s renewable energy target, currently 50 per cent by 2030.

A unit at AGL’s Loy Yang A generator in the Latrobe Valley is expected to return to full generation over the weekend, according to a company spokesman.

A spokesman for Origin confirmed its Mortlake gas-fired power station in Victoria’s west was due to return to service on December 30, after a generating unit was damaged in July. The Australian Energy Market Operator was not forecasting any energy shortfalls ahead of Friday’s heatwave.