Alinta Energy to close two Australian coal-fired power plants early

• 9 years ago (2015-10-12)
• David Flin

Africa 329 Asia 933 Australasia 59 Biomass 8 Clean energy 1 Climate change 22 Coal 318 Cogeneration 1 Concentrating solar 6 Cyber security 8 Decarbonisation 2 Decentralised energy 6 Demand side management 3 Demand side response 2 Digitalisation 11 Distributed energy 10 Distribution 135 Electric vehicles EVs 4 Emissions 66 Energy management 3 Equipment 2 Europe 1109 Gas 414 Gas engine plant 69 Gas fuel 3 Horizon 2 Hydroelectric 17 Hydrogen 66 Hydropower 142 Latin America 88 Maintenance 4 Marine 1 Metering 2 microgrid 5 Middle East 337 North America 1042 Nuclear 680 Offshore wind 124 Oil 21 Operations 4 Policy 9 Regulations 3 Renewables 793 smart grid 2 Solar 287 Storage 45 substation 8 Tepco 2 Tidal 2 Toshiba 4 Transmission 206 US Senate Washington 4 Wind 269

---

Alinta Energy, owned by the private equity firm TPG, has announced that it will shut the Leigh Creek coal mine in northern South Australia in November, and will close two ageing coal-fired power stations at nearby Port Augusta in March 2016. The closures will result in the loss of 400 jobs.

Alinta Energy has suffered heavy financial losses from the plants since taking them over in 2011 in a market hit by over-supply and weak wholesale prices.

The two power plants, the Northern and Playford B power plants, once supplied around 40 per cent of South Australia’s baseload power generation, but have been making increasing losses due to high levels of power supply in Australia’s national electricity market.

ANZ Banking Group has said that it will set strict rules on lending to the coal industry in order to bring the bank’s business into line with the growing momentum across Australia’s corporate sector of reducing carbon emissions.