Offer for Liddell will bring power to the people

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May 3, 2018 - federal elections will be responsible for any power supply problems beyond 2022 when. AGL is scheduled to
03 May 2018 Daily Telegraph, Sydney Author: Stephen Galilee • Section: General News • Article Type: News Item Audience : 232,067 • Page: 13 • Printed size: 216.00cm² • Market: NSW Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 10,207 • words: 515 • Item ID: 948262937

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Offer for Liddell will bring power to the people

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STEPHEN GALILEE

ttention all politicians: you are on notice. Those of you that win the next state and federal elections will be responsible for any power supply problems beyond 2022 when AGL is scheduled to close the Liddell Power Station. And we the voters will hold you accountable. Will we have an unstable power grid with households and businesses facing constant blackouts and monstrous electricity bills? Or will we have access to affordable and reliable electricity 24/7? Too many of our politicians are trying to avoid the serious questions about our post-Liddell energy requirements by pretending the problem is way off in the future. However, this is not an issue that can wait to be sorted out after the next state and federal elections. AGL owns Liddell and stubbornly maintain they will close the power station in just four years time. They propose to replace Liddell’s 1600 megawatts of full time baseload electricity with a combination of gas, renewables and batteries. Unfortunately, the vague plan falls far short of what’s needed, with most of

these replacement measures still subject to feasibility studies. We’ve repeatedly heard for months from the anticoal lobby that no one wants to invest in coal-fired power anymore. Yet we now have power company Alinta making a formal offer to buy Liddell and other energy companies also declaring a potential interest in doing and keeping it running beyond 2022. Despite this, AGL is refusing to allow them to undertake the financial due diligence necessary to determine if a purchase is economically feasible. Meanwhile, families and businesses are struggling to pay their household power bills with electricity related complaints to the Energy and Water Ombudsman up more than 22 per cent by the end 2017. Local businesses in Western Sydney are looking at businesses in South Australia who have been forced to buy generators to ensure they can keep working should their power grid fail again, and wondering if that’s what they’ll have to do to keep their business operating in the future. Our state and federal politicians should also consider the example of South Australia. Former premier Jay Weatherill declared his recent state election to be a referendum on electricity generation. As a result, he was shown the door by voters for his failure to secure reliable and affordable energy. It’s true that most people want more renewable

energy generation. They also want their lights to stay on and not have to sell a kidney to pay for it. It’s irresponsible to risk our energy future by simply hoping AGL’s plan to replace the 24/7 baseload power from Liddell with an untested mix of renewables and batteries, and proposed small gas plant at some yet to be decided location. Whoever wins next year’s elections will not be able to shift blame to AGL if power bills in NSW skyrocket and our electricity grid fails. They will have been warned well in advance of potential blackouts, job losses, business failures and higher energy costs, and like Jay Weatherill, the policy failures will be their own. Stephen Galilee is CEO of the NSW Minerals Council