Shutdown of the Port Augusta station in 2016 ends South Australia's era of power supply from Leigh Creek coal
The last structure of the Port Augusta power station being demolished.
Image courtesy ABC News
South Australia was left without any of its own coal-fired energy sources when Alinta Energy shut down Port Augusta’s 540MW northern power station in May 2016.
The northern power station was the last remnant of the government-run Electricity Trust of South Australia plant that was privatised in the 1990s.
Alinta said it couldn’t afford to keep running the Port Augusta power station, which sourced coal from the now-defunct Leigh Creek field, because of competition from government-backed renewable energy.
Alinta's withdrawal left South Australia’s electricity market dependent on solar and wind power for more than 40% of its generating capacity, with an interconnector to Victoria's brown coal power stations covering only about a quarter of demand. The price of gas, forced up by supplies diverted to export, also affected gas-fired power stations.
The shutdown of Port Augusta power station became an ongoing issue, especially in the wake of the September 2016 state-wide blackout.
The state's Liberal opposition said Alinta Energy had asked for $25 million in state government support to keep the plant operating until 2018. Without revealing the amount, the government replied that Alinta had asked for more money than that and its offer “wouldn’t have suited South Australia’s power needs”.
On whether having the Port Augusta power station would have enabled a more stable grid to prevent the September blackout, the national Australian Energy Market Operator said that because of so many variable factors, there was no proof that keeping the Port Augusta power station open could have prevented the blackout and that the station “has in the past been the cause of massive load shedding, itself”.
The debate over the privatising of ETSA was also revived. Against arguments that the ETSA was necessary are the counter that it had hurt competition and pricing by leaving South Australia’s power supply in too few private hands.
