Canberra, Feb 17 (Agency) Australian energy company Origin Energy will shut down its coal-fired Eraring power plant in the region of Hunter by 2025 due to the economic pressure from cleaner energy sources, the company’s chief executive, Frank Calabria, said on Thursday. “Origin has today submitted notice to AEMO [the Australian Energy Market Operator] for the potential early retirement of Eraring Power Station in August 2025,” Calabria said in a statement published by the company.
According to Calabria, the move reflects the country’s energy market transition to cleaner energy sources, which puts coal power generation under “increasing, unsustainable pressure.” Calabria noted that the facility would be used beyond its closure as a large-scale energy storage site. “To enable Origin to support the market’s continued transition to renewables, we intend to utilise the Eraring site beyond any retirement of the coal-fired power station, with plans to install a large-scale battery,” Calabria said. According to the media reports, the Eraring, which is is the only Origin’s thermal power plant, is one of 16 such stations in Australia and provides about a fifth of the electricity in the state of New South Wales. In October last year, the Australian government presented a state strategy designed to help the country hit a net-zero emission objective by 2050 which include $20 billion investment in such areas as clean hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and energy storage.