AGL has kicked off the summer season by dropping $150 million on its key assets to improve reliability and availability of energy during peak demand months.
Executive General Manager Group Operations, Doug Jackson, said, “We provide an essential service and we know that no matter what month of the year it is, customers expect their homes and businesses to continue operating effectively.
“Our job is to ensure we do everything we can to deliver on this expectation, which is why for the last nine years we have run a summer readiness program, where we take the lessons from previous summers to build a proactive program of work.
“This year we have invested $150 million into our key sites at Macquarie, Loy Yang and Torrens to improve our preparedness for the busy summer months.
“This investment is on top of our considerable maintenance spend and will fund more than a dozen initiatives to improve performance at our Liddell and Baywater plants in the Hunter.”
Mr Jackson said the investment will also support further maintenance and safety activities at Loy Yang in the Latrobe Valley and the Torrens Island Power Station.
“This program aims to provide additional security to our diverse and flexible portfolio of coal, gas and renewables, and helps us to meet the needs of our customers and the National Electricity Market,” he said.
“We are working closely with our industry peers and the Australian Energy Market Operator to plan for the needs of customers and prepare for unpredictable extreme weather events.
“We employ 1,500 people at our operational sites who work in extremely difficult conditions throughout summer to ensure the lights stay on.”
AGL remains confident that the repairs to the Loy Yang Unit Two are on track and will be completed by mid-December 2019 in time for the summer peak.
“In addition to our summer readiness efforts, we’ve been pleased to build the first major dispatchable power station in seven years, with first generation from the Barker Inlet Power Station (BIPS) in South Australia.
“The $295 million plant provides 210MW of dispatchable power via the largest gas engine on the market and is capable of reaching full-capacity in just five minutes,” Mr Jackson said.
