New Analysis shows coal breakdowns and maintenance overruns show why we need more renewable energy

Coal fired power stations across our electricity market have continued to record huge numbers of breakdowns during the peak summer period of 2025-26, compounded by overrun maintenance. 

A new Reliability Watch report has identified that over the 2025-26 summer period, the coal-fired power stations in Australia’s main grid had a staggering 108 outages, including 18 scheduled and 90 unplanned breakdowns. This builds on previous report findings, which showed that Australia’s ageing coal fired power stations broke down 247 times in the twelve months to October 2025. 

On average, 5.3 GW, or 25%, of coal fired power station capacity was unavailable at any point during the period from October 2025 to February 2026. As well as breakdowns, coal fired power station maintenance is becoming significantly more problematic. Of the coal fired power units which were scheduled to have maintenance over the period, these planned shutdowns overran by an average of two weeks. Maintenance on units at Tarong and Yallourn went on for more than twice as long as planned. 

Read the new Reliability Watch report.

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