Coal transport and infrastructure in Australia, Key developments in coal mining and power in Australia in 2012, Financing coal power stations in Australia, Underwriting New Generation Investments program, "Delivering affordable and reliable power", "Federal government shortlists upgrade of Vales Point power station turbine", https://www.gem.wiki/w/index.php?title=Vales_Point_A_power_station_(replacement)&oldid=241402, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Energy Australia will close the Yallourn power station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley in mid-2028, four years ahead of schedule, and build a giant battery instead. Level 7 On the international front the Morrison government has committed $70 million to help develop a regional hydrogen export hub, and Australia has signed agreements with Japan, Korea, Germany and Singapore to investigate hydrogen supply chains. Read more:The power station offloaded by the NSW Government for $1 million suddenly has a future. In public comments this week, the current owner of Vales Point, Trevor St Baker, indicated that Sev.en may seek to keep the station open beyond its current closure date of 2029, saying the company had shown a commitment to the sector and an ambition to expand, both in Australia and globally. Its coal. Newcastle GP andpublic health academic Dr Ben Ewaldsaiddata from existing Hunter and Central Coast power stations provided more evidence of the need to replace old coal-fired power stations with renewable energy. Eraring and Vales Point power stations could be running multi-million dollar annual losses by 2025, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report found. The proposal isin response to Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylors call in September for fair dinkum baseload power generation after the Federal Government lost a public battle with generator AGL over the closure of Liddell power station in 2022. This page was last edited on 30 April 2021, at 11:25. In 1978, two Toshiba 660 MW units were added, becoming "B" Station. Records date back to 2011. The report,China at a Crossroads: Continued Support for Coal Power Erodes Countrys Clean Energy Leadership,found Chinese financial institutions and corporations funded more than 25 per cent of all new coal plants outside China in 2018, or $35.9 billion for projects in 27 countries, excluding Australia. Vales Point Power Station is one of two operating coal fired power stations on the shores of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales. NSW EPA Chief Tony Chappel said the exemption, coupled with the requirement to cut emissions strikes the right balance between safeguarding environmental health and supporting NSWs need for reliable and affordable energy. Publicly owned until 2015 when sold to Sunset International Power for $1 million, the deal capped the new owners site rehabilitation costs to just $10M. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. In an application to the EPA, the power stations owners had requested a further five-year license exemption which allowed for the emission of more than 800mg per cubic metre of nitrogen oxide (NOx) per day. As owners for the last eight years, Esprey and St Baker Family Trust have positioned the business to continue essential operations through the energy transition, but recognise that there are opportunities to grow the business and that this can be better accomplished in a portfolio with Sev.ens other base-load capable generation interests, he said. the nominal closure of Vales Point . The expectation has been that the power station would close in 2029 and the clean-up could begin., Vales Point on southern Lake Macquarie stayed in government hands until 2015, when the Coalition state government controversially sold it to energy entrepreneurs Trevor St Baker and Brian Flannery for $1 million., 167 Parry Street,Hamilton East, NSW, 2303, AboutCampaigningResearch & ReportsSubmissionsVolunteerHCEC NewsMedia ReleasesEventsContact UsCommittee Records, Barrington - Hawkesbury Climate Corridors Alliance, Water pollution Datawatch: NSW power stations. Sign up to Guardian Australia's Morning Mail, Our Australian morning briefing email breaks down the key national and international stories of the day and why they matter. USE is forecasted to be greater than the reliability standard from 2027-28 in New South Wales, increasing further from 2029-30 when Vales Point Power Station is expected to retire. In its home market, it runs two coal power generators and two combined heat and power plants. The EPA also stipulated that Delta must investigate, mitigate and report on the causes of NOx emissions when the 1320-megawatt generator operates at less than half its capacity. At Delta, which supplies about 11 per cent of NSWs power, RBC is thought to have run a process to sell either 50 per cent or 100 per cent, with Mr St Baker originally keeping open an option to retain his stake. We call on Federal Treasurer the Hon Dr Jim Chalmers and the NSW Treasurer and Minister for Energy, the Hon Matt Kean, to refuse the proposed sale of Vales Point Power Station to Czech company Sev.en. Sev.en Group is a global, experienced and responsible operator of conventional power plants. Energy entrepreneur Trevor St Baker and coal investor Brian Flannery will sell their Vales Point coal-fired power station in NSW for several hundred million dollars to a private Czech firm in what represents a further upheaval in the fast-changing sector. Coal-fired power will be needed to keep the lights on for another couple of decades, said Mr St Baker, who is an investor in fast charging system provider Tritium, which listed in New York early this year, and Evie Networks, among other energy interests. In order to supply coal to the station, three mines were opened; Chain Valley Colliery, Newvale No.1 Colliery and Wyee State Mine. Under . The deal comes amid an extended period of turbulence in baseload power generation in the National Electricity Market as cheap renewable energy flowing on to the grid makes it harder to operate baseload coal plants profitably, even amid surging prices for wholesale electricity. However. Stop the Sale of Vales Point Power Station and Close It Down, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers & NSW Treasurer Matt Kean. 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Unit no. Goldman Sachs said Vales Point, backed by energy mogul Trevor St Baker, was facing closure potential. We continue to invest in the reliability of Vales Point to its notional closure in 2029. To learn more, read our Privacy Policy. Correspondence obtained by RenewEconomy through a freedom of information request shows that Delta Electricity cited ongoing policy uncertainty, questions about the long-term future of the plant and an inadequate funding offer from the Morrison government as reasons for cancelling proposed upgrades to Vales Point. The analysis found if power prices continued to decline, Yallourn, along with the Eraring, Mt Piper, Vales Point B and Gladstone black coal plants would be making a loss by 2025. Vales Point is a coal-fired power station which supplies baseload electricity. The script is starkly similar when it comes to water pollution from Vales Point, with offsite water contamination from the south-east portion of the ash dump identified in the Environment Protection Licence this year. Eraring is now scheduled for closure in 2025 and will leave Vales Point as the last electricity-generating station standing on Lake Macquarie, however, Vales Point is also scheduled for nominal closure in 2029. The Vales Point coal-fired power station near the shores of Lake Macquarie, in NSW.James Whelan Goldman Sachs said Vales Point, backed by energy mogul Trevor St Baker, was facing "closure potential". It also followed a dramatic increase in fine particle pollutionconfirmed by Vales Points own data in 2017. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Delta Coal which supplies Vales Point have an active proposal to continue mining largely exploited seams under the lake and ash dump until 2029 and community fears over worsening pollution impacts from this aging facility under this potential new ownership have been made public. We already have really low NOx emissions, lower than Bayswater and Mt Piper, and we are doing operational changes, and we believe that we will meet whatever the requirements are going to be.. Delta Electricity, which is jointly owned by Trevor St Baker and Brian Flannery, announced early in 2019 that it was seeking support for the proposal from the Australian Government's Underwriting New Generation Investments program. the Liddell plant is owned by AGL which has rejected . A licence granted last year exempts the operators of the Vales Point plant, recently sold to Sev.en Global Investments, from nitrogen oxide pollution standards. the Liddell plant is owned by AGL which has rejected a proposal to sell the site as they have their own plans to redevelop the site. Vales Point power station is a major source of NOx on the Central Coast and beyond. The ageing Vales Point coal-fired power station on the New South Wales Central Coast, due to close in 2029, was given a stay of execution in the federal budget. Lake Macquarie Home Fishing Fishing closures, restrictions and permits Lake Macquarie The above closures are generated from the Fisheries Management (General) Regulation 2019 unless otherwise specified. Carbon Monitoring for Action estimates that Vales Point emits 9.32 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year from burning coal. Australia's fleet of coal-fired power stations are aging and many are due for decommissioning, and are being replaced by a combination of mostly renewable energy. The Vales Point coal-fired power station is expected to close in 2029 and there's concern the upgrade will extend this date even thought it's limited by state approvals, wiping out any emissions reduction benefits from the works. [6], Carbon Monitoring for Action estimates this power station emits 9.32 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year as a result of burning hydrocarbon fuels.[7]. Vales Point is located on the southern shore of the lake, near the township of Mannering Park. Alinta Energys Hong Kong-based owner Chow Tai Fook Enterprises is understood to have fielded approaches for the Australian business, which includes the large Loy Yang B coal power generator in Victoria. These four units were known as 'A' Station, its capacity of 875 MW being the highest in New South Wales at the time. It is one of the chief causes of yellow-brown smog. The operator applied for an exemption granted in December 2021 with a reduction variation and additional conditions imposed by the NSW Environment Protection Agency. The proposed plant would adjoin the existing 1320 MW Vales Point power station owned by Delta Electricity. In 2010, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at Delta Electricity's now mothballed Munmorah power station was set for expansion, after receiving US$28 million in funding. It produces about four per cent of the electricity supplied to consumers in the National Electricity Market. (Delta Electricity have also flagged the possibility of the proposed plant being built on the the site of the nearby Liddell power station, which is slated for closure in 2022. We will not spam you or sell your details. News and analysis for the clean energy economy. It has two steam turbines, with a total generating capacity of 1,320 MW (1,770,000 hp) of electricity. 4 was brought into use in 1966. Vales Point provides 11% of NSW electricity. Commercial interest has been registered in 24 solar energy projects; 13 onshore and seven offshore wind energy projects; 35 large-scale batteries and eight pumped hydro projects. If you want to be updated with all the latest energy sector news, you can sign up for our newsletter or visit our blog section. The generation table uses eljmkt nemlog to obtain generation values for each year. He dismissed the suggestion that Vales Point would close earlier than 2029, particularly given the impending closure of its near neighbour, Liddell Power Station, in 2023. It just staggers me that Australia is so far behind the rest of the world which is switching to renewables while were still talking about projects like this, Ms Wynn said. "We predict that gas power station output will fall by 78 per cent and coal output . Michael Mazengarb is a Sydney-based reporter with RenewEconomy,writing on climate change, clean energy, electric vehicles and politics. Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Adam Crouch, said the results of the registration of interest showed that the region was set to reap the jobs and investment rewards from the transformation of the energy system. Find them all here. Please try again later. Every time an old coal-fired power stations closes to be replaced by renewable energy, theres an immediate health benefit to communities within 100 kilometres of the facility, Dr Ewald said. Strict new operating limits for Vales Point Power Station from 1 January. Energy analysts said the renewables-led collapse in average prices across the nations electricity grid was so severe that the 1480-megawatt facility supplying up to 22 per cent of the states power could close even sooner than expected. [3] The plan for a new 660-MW plant appears to be cancelled. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. In January 2019 St Baker told The Australian that he would submit a proposal to Australia's Minister for Energy, Angus Taylor, for government support from the Underwriting New Generation Investments program for three projects including a new A$2 billion 660 MW black coal plant in NSW's Hunter Valley at the Vales Point A power station site or at AGL's Liddell power station.The report claimed "St Baker has lined up a Chinese joint-venture partner" but did not name the company. At a budget estimates hearing last month, Stephen Beaman, a senior regulator at the EPA, said the agency would be finalising its position very shortly on the legality of the exemption. Australia is positioning itself to tap the potential boom in hydrogen fuel, if its adopted globally as a replacement for petroleum. The NSW EPA noted that environment department modelling found that ground-level concentration of NOx in the community meets national health standards. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date. The big energy companies are also feeling the pressure from the Morrison government over the proposed closure dates for older coal-fired power stations. [5] The balloon loop opened in March 1980. Access unlimited content, the digital versions of our print editions - Today's Paper, as well as the Newcastle Herald app. Victoria's potential crunch comes with the 2028-29 closure of the Yallourn power plant in the. "Hundreds of thousands of people living near Australia's largest power station do not know what they are breathing," the report states. 15% of Wyong and 11% of Gosford population suffer from 3 or more chronic health conditions including asthma, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, compared to 5% or less across Sydney. On this basis, Delta respectfully and regrettably advises that it will not submit an application for UNGI grant for the proposed Vales Point power station efficiency upgrade project, Delta Electricity said. Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. These are known as blue hydrogen. The EPA granted Delta an exemption to the licence, however, the exemption went hand in hand with an order to reduce daily levels. Vales Point is located on the southern shore of the lake, near the township of Mannering Park. Vales Point 'A' Station was decommissioned in 1989. While the Chinese government has signalled it will restrict coal lending, the country has yet to formally limit its investment in coal plants, the IEEFA report said. Delta said it did not make financial sense to proceed with the upgrade with the smaller grant amount, given ongoing uncertainty in the energy market and the looming closure of the power station, currently slated for 2029. In addition to its stake in InterGen, which has interests in the Millmerran and Callide power stations in Queensland, Sev.en owns four gas-fired generators in the UK and one of the largest metallurgical coal producers in the US, called Blackhawk Mining. Feb 18, 2022 - 5.07pm. NSW has committed to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and the Hunter region is zoned for renewable energy development to help reach the goal. The largest coal plant in the state AGLs 2880 MW Eraring Power Station, will be closed in 2025. Delta Electricity has stated that Vales Point's "nominal closure" is due in 2029. . These fossil fuel power stations burn coal to power steam turbines that generate some or all of the electricity they produce. Currently the sale is under investigation by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) with its decision to be announced in mid-October 2022. He floated the proposal only two weeks after the NSW Environment Protection Authority ordered Vales Point owner Delta Electricity to clean up a huge part of the power stations ash dam after dumped asbestos was found in building waste fill. Vales Point Power Plant is owned by Delta Electricity, but in September the company announced that the plant is being sold to Czech family investment group Sev.En Global Investments. Wikimedia. A failure to act is no longer an option, Mr Chappel said. offsite water contamination from the south-east portion of the ash dump identified in the Environment Protection Licence this year. Its like selling an unregistered car. AGL Energy announced it would move the. NSW taxpayers might have to pay some remediation costs associated with the closure of Origin Energy's Eraring coal-fired power station when it shuts down in 2025. . and Evie Networks, among other energy interests. Whoever owns these assets, I want to make sure they are acting in the interests of the citizens of this state, not for vested interests, he said. Future: Part of the Vales Point power station on the Central Coast. Its also unknown how the sale will impact the rehabilitation responsibilities for the power station ash dumps, she said. Andy Saunders 1 year ago John John 1 year ago Andy Saunders 1 year ago Future Sooner is a community action group working towards a clean energy future for the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie. It has previously been reported that the EPA briefed the states environment minister, James Griffin, over concerns about the exemption, as well as seeking approval to pay a senior barrister for advice on the legality of the exemption. Coal is carbon. The Hunter Hydrogen Hub will drive new low carbon jobs and help to set up the regionfor the future, Mr Kean will say. Vales Point Power Station will have its limits on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions cut by up to 35% to meet new national air quality standards in the local community, and will have to adhere to strict new monitoring and reporting conditions from next year. . It is understood that the joint owner of Delta, and significant political donor, Trevor St Baker, had been told informally in early 2020 that it was set to receive $11 million in grant funding from the Morrison government to fund the $20 million turbine upgrade. In December 2021, the value of the power station was written down to $156 million and in September 2022 Delta Electricity agreed to sell to Czech company, Sev.en Global Investments. If Vales Point power station is allowed to operate beyond 2029, we know it will have continued serious consequences for the health of the community. Subsequently, St Baker stated that the shortlisted project was for 20 MW upgrades of the two existing turbines at the Vales Point B plant. No need to search elsewhere for all the latest updates on the electricity market and energy-efficiency tips that are important for you, the savvy business owner. @ Copyright RenewEconomy 2020. The Vales Point power station has been operating on the shores of Lake Macquarie since the 1960's and was constructed before NSW environmental protection laws came into effect. In 2021, the Vales Point Power Station emitted more toxic nitrogen oxide pollutants than allowable under the NSW Protection of the Environment Operations (Clean Air) Regulation 2021. It was commissioned in 1978 and is located on the southern shore of Lake Macquarie. The Liddel power station in the NSW Hunter is already set to close in 2023, but the report said at least one more closure in the state is likely before 2025. Origin Energys 2000 MW Liddell plant will close in early 2023. Sydney, NSW 2000 He noted the deal includes a coal mine that supplies the 1320-megawatt Vales Point generator and that the plant is in good order. Mr St Bakers announcement came as the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) released a report on Monday showing Chinese finance is increasingly stepping in as the lender of last resort for coal plants, as other banks take active measures to restrict their funding. As outlined in the budget speech and subsequent announcement, the budget allocation has a funding cap of $8.7m, which is below that which Delta requested, leaving a substantially higher quantum of funding by Delta, Delta said in the letter. [9][10][11], Vales Point Power Station was used as the location for the Midnight Oil US Forces music video.[12][13]. The power stations end of technical life is set for 2029. The region has significantly higher than national rates of six cancers: Colorectal (14% higher), Head & Neck (26%), Kidney (23%), Liver (26%), Lung (28%) and Pancreatic (17%). Vales Point uses salt water from Lake Macquarie for cooling. A Morrison government plan to fund upgrades at the Vales Point coal fired power station fell through after the government offered insufficient funding for the upgrades to take place, with owners Delta Electricity warning the plant could close early, documents obtained under FOI show. All rights reserved. [1], In March 2019 Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Delta Electricity's proposal had been shortlisted but provided no details.[2]. Victoria Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain said the Victorian government had struck an entirely sensible deal with EnergyAustralia to bring forward closure at Yallourn, which provided a long lead time of seven years for the market to fill gaps in power supply by 2028. Key points: Energy Australia will build a 350 megawatt, utility-scale battery in the Latrobe Valley by the end of 2026 The giant coal-fired Yallourn plant has been operating for 47 years Delta Coal which supplies Vales Point have an active proposal to continue mining largely exploited seams, ommunity fears over worsening pollution impacts from this aging facility under this potential new ownership, RSVP for updates and an invitation in 2023.