Oh gosh oh darn. We don’t throw away a lot more of taxpayers’ money to shut down some of our cheapest and most reliable electrical generators? Oh the devastation…
Australia’s dirtiest power stations, Hazelwood and Yallourn in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, will not be paid by the federal government to shut down because of the failure of negotiations with their owners.
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson is today expected to disclose the outcome of talks with power generators over contracts for closure, a big step for the industry that could lead to the shutdown of some power stations under the government’s plan to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
Negotiations with Hazelwood, which is owned by International Power, and Yallourn, which is owned by TRUenergy, failed to agree on a price acceptable to both sides.
Negotiations have been complicated by the fall in international carbon prices, which increased the value of coal power stations.
The state of talks with Alinta, which owns Playford in South Australia, Collinsville in Queensland, which is owned by RATCH, and Energy Brix, is unclear. The government wants to shut up to 2000 megawatts of brown coal generation.
The federal government has set aside an undisclosed amount for the closures in its budget contingency reserve.
