NSW election: Labor’s Chris Minns backflips on energy policy with plans to buy Eraring power station

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has risked a serious rift within his party by flagging the possibility of buying back Australia’s largest coal-fired power station in a bid to shore up the state’s energy supply and bring down electricity bills.

The Australian Energy Market Operator last week warned the east coast could face rolling blackouts with renewable energy generation and gas unlikely to keep up with demand in the next few years.

Despite the impending threat of the lights going out, coupled with spiralling retail energy costs, there has been great reluctance from governments to pour money into the fossil fuel industry – fearing backlash from environmentally-conscious voters.

But Mr Minns appears to be positioning Labor for a major backflip in energy policy ahead of the March 25 election.

The Opposition leader said a government he leads may look to take control of the Eraring power station in Lake Macquarie, which is scheduled to close in 2025, seven years earlier than previously planned.  

‘I’m not going to let the power run out in NSW, and I’m not going to rule out (buying Eraring),’ he told told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

‘It might be a negotiation between the government and a private company and I acknowledge that before the election, I’m putting that out there.’

Mr Minns said Eraring provides 25 per cent of NSW’s electricity needs. 

‘If it’s taken offline, and there’s not the firming power in place, we could have major shortages,’ he said. 

When its owner Origin Energy made the announcement last year that it would close in 2025, NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean said he was disappointed by the decision. 

He promised the state would build what he described as the ‘biggest battery in the southern hemisphere’ to make up for the power production that would be lost. 

But, having sold the plant in 2013, the Coalition then tried to buy it back in 2021 for almost five times the selling price. 

‘This power station was sold for $50million, Matt Kean tried to buy it back for $240million,’ Mr Minns said.

‘When you sell off critical infrastructure that the state needs, it undermines industry, the economy and the budget position in the long run.’

Eraring power station (pictured) is due to close in 2025, but NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has not ruled out the state buying it back to keep it open

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns (pictured on 2GB) said ‘When you sell off critical infrastructure that the state needs, it undermines industry, the economy and the budget position in the long run’

The Labor leader’s comments came after Mr Kean said the Coalition, if reelected, could intervene to keep Eraring open past 2025 to ease shortfalls and rising prices. 

But as Labor flipped to a more pro-coal view of power supply, the Liberals flipped the other way and Mr Kean walked away from what he had said hours earlier. 

Premier Dominic Perrottet, whose Liberal Party is facing strong challenges from pro-environment Teal candidates in several seats, said intervening to extend Eraring’s lifespan was ‘not part of our plans’.

‘We have an energy roadmap that’s delivering $32billion of private sector investment to ensure we have a long term reliable and clean energy future. That’s our plan,’ he said. 

The Premier added that he and Mr Kean were ‘on completely the same page’ about the power station’s future.

Mr Minns told Fordham that the Australian Energy Market Operator – the national regulator – ‘released a report last week indicating that we do need to worry about shortfalls in supply in the energy markets over the next 24 months’. 

He said one of the reasons Labor plans to set up a NSW Energy Security Corporation is because ‘we’re worried about exactly these things’.

‘When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing we need to make sure we’ve got dispatchable power for the people of NSW,’ Mr Minns said.

‘At the moment that’s not going to happen because Matt Kean has not done the work to make sure there’s energy security within the network.

‘I can’t rule out further action in relation to Eraring.

The Coalition sold off all five NSW coal-fired power plants since it won power in 2011, while the previous Labor NSW government sold off energy suppliers, but Mr Minns has ruled out any further privatisation if Labor wins power. 

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (right) said he and Energy Minister Matt Kean (left) were ‘on completely the same page’ about the Eraring power station’s future 

In February, he said ‘Privatisation does not work. It has been a disaster for NSW and under Labor it stops.’

If Labor bought Eraring back, it would be the opposite of privatisation, it would mean the state taking back control of a previously privatised asset. 

If the buyback was about almost anything other than a coal-fired power station it would get the backing of Labor’s left and the Greens.

But it does concern fossil fuels – and Mr Minns will have calculated that however many votes the switch loses to the Greens and minor parties the decision will come back in spades in the seats Labor needs to win in Western Sydney.