Latest Insights and Publications

A new analysis by Reliability Watch shows Australia’s ageing coal power stations broke down a staggering 128 times over the summer period, eight times more than the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) was expecting.

On Friday April 3, Callide C3 broke down at 3am. It was operating at close to full capacity when an incident, variously described as a “pressure spike” by operator CS Energy and an explosion by the union, caused it to suddenly drop offline.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found that keeping coal fired power stations online would force more reliance on expensive gas as they become more unreliable.

Nexa Advisory have mapped outages from Callide B and C power stations to show that, even before well publicised explosions at Callide C, the stations were offline for between 6 - 12 weeks a year.

Baringa have found that as most of Australia’s coal fired power stations reach 40 years, their reliability is dropping off and this is threatening higher prices or even blackouts.

Nexa Advisory have found that Eraring has recorded a high breakdown rate and isn’t able to respond to high demand or price periods, leading to concerns that it will not be able to guarantee NSW’s electricity supply to 2027.