Report counts 6,000 hours of outages at Eraring over 2024
Eraring power station, the giant NSW coal plant whose retirement has been pushed out from this year to at least 2027, experienced around 6,000 hours of outages over the course of 2024.
The generator was due to retire this year, but its owner, Origin Energy, struck a deal with the NSW government to keep it open until August 2027, and possibly longer, backed by up to $450 million in state funding support if needed.
The extension of the coal plant, which holds the title of the largest remaining in Australia, has been framed around the need for energy reliability as NSW installs enough renewables and energy storage to cover its exit.
But this line of reasoning has been questioned by energy experts, and put under doubt by Origin, itself, which last year admitted that Eraring is prone to trips, just when it is needed most and operating at or near full capacity.
The past year’s outages are equivalent to each of the coal plant’s four units being down for an average of two months, due to a mix of planned maintenance and unplanned breakdowns.
The average generation on the two highest demand days in 2024 was well below the 720 MW nameplate output of its four units.