Energy security influenced by age of powerplants

摘要

Energy security in electricity generation has featured in recent public discussions leading to the release of the federal government's Green Paper on a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The Green Paper itself canvassed the proposition that compensation might need to be paid to coal-fired electricity generators - not to appease the generators' claims that emissions trading would reduce the value of their assets, but to ensure against premature plant shut-downs and so ensure electricity supply. This paper looks at energy security in electricity generation from a perspective that has been overlooked in current discussions - the age of generating plants. Electricity generating plants operate economically for a long time, but they do not last forever. The average age of coal-fired principal powerstations in Australia (the National Electricity Market and the WA system) is now 231/2 years.