Victoria’s biggest coal-fired power plant hit by second outage in three years

Victoria’s biggest coal-fired power station, AGL’s Loy Yang A, has been hit by its second outage in three years, knocking out about a quarter of its power supply.

The company said the affected unit could be out of service until August but is still assessing the full impact of the electrical fault that caused the outage on Friday.

The Australian Energy Market Operator said it was unlikely the outage would impact the overall network given the fault has occurred in cooler months when demand on the electricity network is lower. “We remain in contact with the station owner and currently forecast sufficient supply to meet demand,” an AEMO spokesperson said.

AGL said it was assessing the length of the outage, and what efforts could be taken to mitigate the impact. “AGL will inform the market of any financial impact of the technical fault and timing of the outage once these assessments have occurred,” the company said in a statement.

The unit is one of four at the Loy Yang A power station in the La Trobe valley, which provides about 30 per cent of the state’s electricity capacity.

The same unit was out of service in 2019 after another fault that took about seven months for the company to repair.

AGL announced in February it would bring forward the planned closure of Loy Yang A from 2048 to sometime between 2040 and 2045.

The AEMO reported in January that renewable sources continued to displace thermal generation, with black coal-fired power falling to its lowest December quarter average since 1998.

Australian average renewable output levels increased from 31 per cent to 34 per cent in the same quarter.

More to come.