No disruption to power supply as Liddell station goes offline, minister says

Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has promised the closure of Liddell Power Station will not disrupt power supply levels.

The coal fired station in the Upper Hunter will go offline this Friday after generating energy for 52 years.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has assured Bowen the closure of Liddell would be absorbed into the system without any "additional disruptive threats".

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Bowen said it was due to all of the renewable energy sources which have begun feeding power into the grid recently.

"AGL has plans for this site of course, which are very important, which include a battery but that is not replacing Liddell," Bowen said.

"You need to replace places like Liddell before they go out of the system and that is the entire focus of all of the energy work we are doing.

He said it was not viable for anyone to keep the power station open.

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"There is only one per cent of power stations in the world older than Liddell, that means for management and workers inevitably it is going to get harder to run and harder to keep operating.

"Our entire world is making a transformation to renewable energy because we have to, because our climate is changing."

In February, AEMO called for "urgent" investment to modernise Australia's energy grid or the continued closure of coal power stations could lead to electricity shortages and blackouts on the east coast by 2027.

The station had no forced redundancies, with 50 per cent of its workforce going to work at the Bayswater facility and others retiring or taking other opportunities in the seven year winding down process.

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