Kurri Kurri Will Be Gas
The imminent closure of the 1680 Liddell black coal-fired power station means that New South Wales needs reliable power which today either comes from baseload coal or gas.
If the NSW government is prepared to pay a reasonable availability fee you can then have the best of both worlds. We can allow for green energy to be built and whether it functions or not the energy will provided by turning on the gas-fired power station.
To be realistic to replace the Liddell with a nuclear plant would take at least 10 years and would be a political battle which I don’t think any Australian government take on. Replacing the Liddell with the coal-fired state of the art plant with gas sequestration would take at least seven years.
Gases available either from the Narrabri project or from the Sydney – Newcastle pipeline.
The reality is that the Dell is to be retired and despite grand plans of the New South Wales government to build 12GW something needs to happen now.
What is important is Australia has a national energy policy provide consumers and industry with sustainable low-cost electricity so we can keep our costs structured down.
Do we have a choice other than to have this part of NSW powered by gas which will be priced in another market?
Paul Raftery