Why Victorians are demanding Yallourn power station keeps running - Herald Sun

Victorians are calling on the state government to keep Yallourn power station operational beyond its planned 2028 closure. The Herald Sun reports public and business concerns that the early exit of the coal plant will worsen energy costs and security as Victoria transitions away from dispatchable generation.

Where this fits

Yallourn is one of Victoria's last firm power plants. Its closure, alongside similar retirements across the National Electricity Market, leaves the grid increasingly dependent on weather-driven renewable output. That dependency creates a known problem: when wind and solar underperform, the system needs fast, flexible firming capacity. Gas plants fill that role, but gas prices have decoupled from coal. Retiring Yallourn without building equivalent firm capacity elsewhere, whether new gas, geothermal, or nuclear, pushes up the cost of firming and narrows the margin between supply and demand when weather fails. This is a reliability and affordability pressure masquerading as a transition choice.

What it means

Victoria is discovering that the speed of coal exit and the pace of renewable build do not align with grid physics. Demand for electricity will grow; weather-dependent supply cannot guarantee it every hour. The state is not yet replacing Yallourn's dispatchable output with dispatchable alternative. Without firm power, blackout risk rises, and the cost of the transition compounds. Australia has one low-carbon firm source available, nuclear, but cannot deploy it. The result: higher bills, more gas, and a narrower margin for error when renewables fall short.