“Renewables not coming online fast enough,” says utility that didn’t build any while courting state coal deal

Origin Energy, Australia’s biggest utility, says that renewable energy projects and new transmission lines are not being built fast enough to replace the country’s “ageing and unreliable” coal generators.

“Renewables and transmission projects are not coming online fast enough, principally through delays in the approval and construction of major projects,” the company’s chairman Scott Perkins told shareholders at the annual general meeting on Wednesday.

It appears to be a particularly ironic, if not galling comment, given that Origin itself failed to build any new wind or solar in the 2.5 years between announcing a planned “early closure” of the country’s biggest coal generator at Eraring, and securing a $450 million underwriting deal to put that closure back by at least another two years.

Having secured the government support to keep the coal plant open – ostensibly to address any supply shortfalls, but more likely to spare government blushes over rising wholesale prices in the lead up to the next state election – Origin has finally hit the green button on a series of green energy investments.

This includes projects such as the 1.5 GW Yanco Delta wind farm, the Ruby Hills and Northern Tablelands wind projects and the Salisbury solar development, along with several big batteries at Eraring and Mortlake, and an off take agreement for the Supernode battery in Queensland.

“Origin is playing its part with a notable step change in our investments in renewables and storage project developments over the last year,” Perkins noted.

The ambitions of Origin – to boost its renewables and storage capacity to 4 to 5 gigawatts by 2030 – are also notable because they represent just one third of the additions planned over a 10-year period by Canada’s Brookfield, whose agreed and joint $18 billion bid was voted down last year by institutions heavily committed to fossil fuel investments.

CEO Frank Calabria said the 2.8 GW Eraring coal plant, which will now stay open until at least August 2027, and possibly as late as 2029, had risen to its highest level in five years, “supporting government policy to increase generation
and help place downward pressure on prices for customers.”

He said the company’s fleet of gas peaking power stations also increased output, “helping to firm the growing amount of variable renewable energy supply in the grid.”

Origin is also heavily invested in LNG, and says it will play a key role in the energy transition, despite recent reports that suggest LNG is, in fact, more polluting than coal fired generation.

“We continue to have really strong medium- to long-term conviction that LNG will play an important role in the energy transition,” Perkins said.