Australia’s New South Wales backs gas power as coal plants shut
Australia’s most populous State has ruled out batteries and other energy storage in its latest tender to manage expected power shortfalls when its aging coal plants close.
New South Wales will seek 1 500 MW in the tender to firm up supply, most of which will be from natural gas peaking plants, State Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said at the Australian Financial Review’s Energy and Climate Summit in Sydney.
Bidders must be net energy contributors and be able to maintain supplies for at least eight hours, according to the bid documents, which rules out most storage systems.
“We’ve got good renewables, we’ve got good batteries, we’ve got good long duration storage, but the reality is that we have times over a longer period of time that we need that backup,” Sharpe said. “We’re building the airplane as it’s flying, and we can’t afford to have loss of reliability.”
Origin Energy earlier this year delayed the retirement of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station by almost two years to 2029 after the main grid operator flagged New South Wales could face energy reliability risks if it closed as planned.
The State has since awarded several tenders for backup electricity, but natural gas generation has lost out to other technologies, predominantly battery storage systems.