Sydney

The New South Wales Labor government has confirmed it will turn to consumers and local and shared storage as part of its plans to spend $1.8 billion to fast track its response to the proposed closure of the country’s biggest coal generator in two years time.

The Minns Government on Wednesday outlined a $1.8 billion “boost” to help “rescue NSW’s energy transition”, and fill the gap that will be created by Origin Energy’s planned closure of the 2.88GW Eraring coal facility in August, 2025.

The Australian Energy Market Operator has said that if government tenders for nearly a gigawatt of “firm power” and other renewable and storage projects are delivered on time, then there should be no breach of the country’s tight reliability standards.

But NSW – fearing delays in project delivery and commissioning – has decided to fast-track other measures that could boost the capacity and reliability of the grid over the short term.

The $1.8 billion package – announced at the site of a new community battery at Blacktown in western Sydney – includes a previously announced $1 billion to establish the Energy Security Corporation.

This was largely seen as a vehicle to support pumped hydro storage, which hasn’t been able to compete with batteries even when the guidelines require eight-hour storage.

...