Essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Observa; The long notice period required to address a “fundamental mismatch” in pace of the energy transition.

AEMO wants 5 years’ warning on coal plant closures to fix “fundamental mismatch” in pace of energy transition

…

… AEMO wants the owners of Australia’s remaining coal-fired generation plants to give five years’ notice of their closure date, instead of the current requirement of 3.5 years, to ensure there are sufficient resources to replace them.

“The risks of under procurement for system strength and inertia within the context of the transition are substantial and can obstruct the transition from progressing,” the rule change proposal says.

“There is a fundamental mismatch between the relatively short timeframes within which system step changes can become known … and the longer lead times within which approval … procurement and commissioning activities …can respond.

“Coal plant exit notice requirements are 3.5 years, but the RIT-T [Regulatory Investment Test for Transmission] process for system strength has taken more than three years to complete and the delivery and commissioning of new resources can take several more years beyond that.”

To remedy this, AEMO proposes extending the notice of closure outlook obligations in the National Energy Rules (NER) for relevant exiting plant to
five years to align with Network Support and Control Ancillary Services (NSCAS) gap declaration timeframes.

…

You can read AEMO’s proposal here.

Read more: https://reneweconomy.com.au/aemo-wants-five-years-warning-on-coal-plant-closures-to-fix-fundamental-mismatch-in-pace-of-energy-transition/

What an embarrassment for the Net Zero movement.

One way to escape this ridiculous demand that power plant operators should operate under a punitive Net Zero regulatory environment for five years would be to separate the coal plants into a bad asset company and declare insolvency.

But no doubt if the AEMO proposal is adopted, there will also be laws passed which make directors of power plant companies personally liable for any failure of coal plants to complete the mandatory five year notice period.

Aussie Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen has just accepted a COP31 role, “President of Negotations”, which presumably means Bowen will get the blame when COP31 falls in a heap like COP30. So we can all look forward to some enthusiastic climate leadership in Australia, including more regulatory attacks on Aussie coal plants.

Not a good time to be a coal power plant operator in Australia.