This morning EnergyAustralia announced that the Yallourn Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley will retire in mid-2028 instead of 2032.
The Yallourn Power Station has been providing Victoria and Australia with electricity since 1974. It is powered by brown coal produced from the Yallurn mine, Australia’s second-largest open cut mine, which is just next door.
Each year EnergyAustralia mines approximately 18 million tonnes of high moisture brown coal to supply the power station with the coal that it needs to drive four large turbine generators. Together, these turbines produce 1,480 megawatts of electricity an hour – enough to power about two million homes.
The Yallourn Power Station currently provides 22 per cent of Victoria’s electricity, and about 8 per cent of Australia’s National Electricity Market.
Today EnergyAustralia Managing Director, Catherine Tanna, advised that the company had approached the Victorian Government with the plan to retire Yallourn and transition to cleaner energy in a way that does not leave the workforce or the community behind.
“The energy transition is too important to leave to chance – a plan that supports people, the Latrobe Valley and locks in energy storage capacity before Yallourn retires will ensure the smoothest transition possible,” Tanna said.
“Our $10 million support package, coupled with seven years’ advance notice, means our power station and mine site people will have time to plan, reskill or retrain.”
“EnergyAustralia is determined to demonstrate that coal-fired power can exit the market in a way that supports our people and ensures customers continue to receive reliable energy.”
EnergyAustralia has committed to building Australia’s first four-hour utility-scale battery of 350 megawatts capacity by 2026 in the Latrobe Valley.
Tanna said the new battery would help to secure Victoria’s energy supply and enable more renewables to enter the system
“It would be larger than any battery operating in the world today,” she said.
“Customers want affordable, reliable, cleaner sources of energy and as Yallourn has proudly supplied energy for 100 years we want to harness our history, and the expertise of our workforce, to repower Victoria.”
EnergyAustralia’s is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050. The Yallourn Power Station’s retirement will reduce the company’s carbon dioxide emissions by over 60 per cent relative to today, accelerating its carbon-neutral ambition.
EnergyAustralia historically invests between $200-$300 million per year to ensure the plant’s continued operation. Yallourn employs around 500 permanent workers on-site, and for three to four months most years, the workforce increases to about 1000 for major unit outages.
