David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today because we noticed in question time our energetic energy minister was talking about a massive amount of capital going from the federal government into state government hands to expand the grid, and I would like to talk a bit about this stage of the transition and what is likely. I have before me the fact sheet regarding the decommissioning of Liddell Power Station's closure to turn it into an energy hub site. But I note that 1,500 megawatts will vanish in April 2023, after the Easter holidays, and the last time we had an unscheduled loss of even 500 megawatts there, followed by the loss at Callide Power Station because of an accident where hydrogen gas in the generator blew up, we had energy chaos and the National Electricity Market was suspended. I can't see how that won't happen again when this planned closure happens. Our reserve margin is wafer thin, many times potentially negative, and this will precipitate blackouts in some shape or form. Not necessarily the whole grid, they will just prune supply to the edges of the grid to keep everything running. I would like to point out that the bring forward and even the planned transition haven't adequately planned for another replacement reliable generator. It is really quite scary. You only have to look at what is happening in Germany. They relied on a lot of gas from Russia and on energy coming from France and other places. All of a sudden they have opened up over 20 coal-fired power plants which they had kept in care and maintenance. In fact, the oldest station in Berlin was constructed in 1928.

The moral of the story is: I think we are mad to let Liddell be destroyed. We should put that in care and maintenance because we will need—

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