Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says the federal government is concerned New South Wales’ electricity grid will be “in trouble” in terms of “supply and reliability of energy and the price” if the life of AGL Energy’s Liddell coal power station is not extended. In August, Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced the formation of a taskforce to consider an extension or replacement for the plant.
“That’s the pressure Angus Taylor’s putting on,” Mr Clennell said.
“He’s saying give us an extension of Liddell or show us how you are going to replace that energy.
“We revealed last month that a taskforce involving federal and state bureaucrats found that to extend the life of the plant from 2023 to 2026 would cost $300 million and would have to be subsidised by the federal and state governments.”
Mr Clennell also said he was told Tomago Aluminium, which his serviced by Liddell, is concerned about the future if the plant closes — which includes 1,100 jobs.
“State government is apparently not very keen unless you’re John Barilaro.”
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro earlier told Sky News “when our network relies on a large consumer of electricity, like Tomago smelter in the Hunter, to switch off and switch down so that we don’t black out Sydney in the summer, when we have that sort of arrangement in our network we have, of course, a policy failure.”
“We will need Liddell to continue on. There is a gap that is coming that you can’t firm up with renewables.”
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