Power producers are seeking answers from regulators on payment for their output after the suspension of the National Electricity Market.
The Australian Energy Market Operator says its shutdown of the National Electricity Market has significantly improved its ability to run the power system, but has refused to signal when normal operations will resume.
“The first priority is about getting the plants operating, getting fuel to plants, getting the output, and now over the last 24 hours some more plant coming back from outages which is good to see,” Origin Energy CEO Frank Calabria said. It is working closely with AEMO on the running of its 2880-megawatt Eraring coal plant in NSW, the country’s biggest, to manage the impact of constraints on coal supply to the site.Mr Calabria said sorting out compensation for plants operating at a loss under the capped price would come later.
Massive diesel generators brought into SA to firm its renewable energy sector were privatised by the previous state Liberal government under a contract in which the owners need only activate them during a power shortage in summer. But he said one unit at EnergyAustralia’s Mt Piper plant near Lithgow in NSW would need to come offline this weekend for a boiler repair, which should be completed early next week.Coal supply to Mt Piper was also “at lower levels than we planned for”, Mr Collette said. The Tallawarra gas plant in NSW’s Shoalhaven district had been running at much higher than normal levels.
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