Last week, in our chart of the week we wrote about the Federal Government’s announcement surrounding the replacement of Liddell with 1,000 MW of 24/7 dispatchable gas capacity. A week can be a long time as this figure has now fallen to 250MW – much more in line with AEMO’s suggestion in the ESOO that only 154 MW of capacity would be required. With the focus on Liddell (again), we thought it useful to explore how it has performed and what the impacts of its exit look like.
Despite concerns over its reliability, Liddell had at least three units in service 90% of the time in FY2020 meeting ~15% of NSW’s total energy requirements. When online, units typically ran around 350MW ± 50 MW depending on the # of units online and system needs. This seems to be the sweet spot to ensure that the unit remains as stable as possible until its scheduled closure.
