When Jono Lawless began work in the control room of Origin Energy’s giant Eraring power station in 2006, his shifts were much less complicated.
“We ran [the generator units] just about flat out through the day, and then about, say, 10 o’clock at night, we came down to our bottom,” Lawless told visiting journalists on Tuesday. “Then we’d park them overnight, pretty much, and then come up pretty hard in the morning – just before dawn – when everyone, the miners, get up to put the kettles on.”
Now, however, the 2,880-megawatt coal-fired plant – Australia’s largest – usually runs “180 degrees out from where we used to be”.
Assuming each is available, the four units typically wind down each morning when the sun comes up and PV panels on roofs and solar farms start meeting electricity demand.
Eraring will then often “flatline” at its minimum operating level of 180MW per unit, supplying surplus energy for free as it is “too expensive” to turn on and off the hulking boilers that burn coal at more than 1,200C, Lawless said. “That’s the problem with coal-fired power.”
Origin bent to that market pressure in early 2022, announcing it would bring forward Eraring’s scheduled closure seven years to August 2025. It even tried to sell Eraring back to the New South Wales government for $544m – a decade after its purchase.
Then followed a series of crises for the national electricity market. These included Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sending global energy prices skyward, catching Origin out. Eraring struggled to obtain coal from its main supplier, Centennial Coal, prompting the state government to act to ensure trains carrying the fuel got through.
The Minns Labor government made it clear even before winning office in March 2o23 that it would be keen for Eraring to be extended.
Primarily, renewable energy and storage projects weren’t being completed fast enough. That view was conveniently endorsed by the Australian Energy Market Operator just two days before the government announced it would offer subsidies of as much as $450m to delay Eraring’s exit until at least August 2027, and perhaps as late as April 2029.
Environmental groups were among those dismayed by the extension. Burning about 6m tonnes of coal a year, Eraring may emit at least 50m tonnes more of carbon dioxide during its extension – or about one-tenth of Australia’s national total.
So far in 2024 output from Eraring is up about 7% on a year earlier, according to Dylan McConnell, an energy expert at the University of New South Wales. It has filled some of the void left by the closure of the Liddell power plant – further up the Hunter Valley – as well as meeting demand when wind energy suffered an extended drought this past winter.
But workers got a temporary reprieve, even if few had apparently left to find employment elsewhere prior to the extension. During Tuesday’s visit about 400 staff and contractors were on hand to run the plant, with as many as 700 more on a short-term $70m-$80m maintenance overhaul to give unit 3 about five more years of life.
Signage around the Eraring plant hasn’t been updated to reflect its extension. Staff are still greeted with a “Navigating your future directions” poster that ends with step six “closing out all that needs to be done” by a 2025 closure date.
‘In a holding pattern’
Workers were gearing up for their next job. Shannon Logue, who worked at the plant for about 35 years, has a lawn mowing business in his sights.
“It got to a point where I was comfortable that in August 2025 when the gate closes, I’d roll straight into that,” he said. “Then the announcement of the extension was made, and so I just now dialled it back. So I’ll just sit there in a holding pattern.”
To the south-east of the main plant, evidence of what comes next for Eraring is taking shape. Almost 190 workers were on hand during Tuesday’s visit, assembling a giant battery that will provide some ongoing activity.
Alas, Origin says the $1bn-plus storage system – potentially capable of supplying 700MW of power over four hours if a third stage proceeds – will employ just three ongoing operating jobs. (Maintenance will add a few more.)
Japan provided most of the heavy equipment for Eraring when it began full operations in 1984. Chinese factories are now providing the batteries – via the energy storage giant CATL – and even the transformers supplied by Japanese firms such as Toshiba.
Origin remains adamant the coal-fired plant, which began full operations in 1984, will not have operations extended again.
“Origin retains the right to determine the final timeline for retirement of all four units of Eraring Power Station,” a company spokesperson said. “However, no state compensation will be payable after [financial year] 2027, and the plant must retire in full no later than April 2029.”
The 1m tonne mountain of coal, fed by trains and a two-km-long conveyor belt, the array of noisy and hot boilers, the dusty fabric filters catching the fly ash and other particulate nasties and the twin 200m-high smokestacks will all be rendered useless.
The plant’s ash dam, which is on track to contain about 35m tonnes of waste by 2029, continues to grow. Recycling rates, though, have picked up so that about 43% of the ash is diverted to cement and other producers, creating products such as the concrete slabs within Eraring’s own barbecue area for staff.
Energy analysts, such as Tim Buckley, say Origin needs to reveal how it will remain a major generator of power – not just operate batteries – if it is to meet a customer book totalling about 4.5 million people.
Origin says its committed to adding 4,000-5,000MW of renewables and storage by 2030 – or perhaps a year after Eraring shuts. That includes the Yanco Delta wind project, the Ruby Hills and Northern Tablelands windfarm projects, and the Salisbury Solar Farm, all in NSW, the spokesperson said.
The NSW government remains set on a 2029 closure date – at the latest. It would have been grateful for its presence during parts of winter, something Lawless, too, was monitoring on the screens in his control room.
“We had four units running as hard as we could get them, for 12 days, 13 days straight,” he said.
Depending on the day, Eraring meets 22%-28% of the state’s power, he adds, a big hole to fill – one of these years.
