NSW election: Labor’s Chris Minns backflips on energy policy with plans to buy Eraring power station

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has risked a serious rift within his party by pointing to the possibility of buying back Australia’s largest coal-fired power station in a bid to bolster the state’s energy supply and cut electricity bills.

The Australian Energy Market Operator warned last week that the east coast could face progressive blackouts from renewable energy generation and gas that is unlikely to keep up with demand for years to come.

Despite the looming threat of the lights going out, coupled with rising retail energy costs, there has been great reluctance from governments to put money into the fossil fuel industry – fearing backlash from environmentally conscious voters.

But Mr Minns appears to be positioning Labor for a major backslide in energy policy ahead of the March 25 election.

The opposition leader said a government he heads would like to take control of the Eraring power station in Lake Macquarie, which is scheduled to close in 2025, seven years ahead of schedule.

“I’m not going to run out of power in NSW, and I’m not going to rule out[buying Eraring],” he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

“It could be a negotiation between the government and a private company and I acknowledge I’m bringing that out before the election.”

Mr Minns said Eraring supplies 25 per cent of NSW’s electricity needs.

“If it’s taken offline and there’s not the reinforcing power there, we could have huge deficits,” he said.

When owner Origin Energy announced last year it would close in 2025, NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean said he was disappointed by the decision.

He promised the state would build what he described as the “largest battery in the southern hemisphere” to make up for lost power production.

But after selling the plant in 2013, the coalition then tried to buy it back in 2021 for nearly five times the sale price.

“This plant was sold for $50 million, Matt Kean tried to buy it back for $240 million,” said Mr. Minns.

“If you sell critical infrastructure that the state needs, it undermines the industry, the economy and the fiscal position in the long run.”

The Labor leader’s comments came after Mr Kean said the coalition, if re-elected, could step in to keep Eraring open beyond 2025 to reduce shortages and rising prices.

But as Labor shifted to a more pro-carbon view of power supply, the Liberals swung the other way and Mr Kean walked away from what he had said hours earlier.

Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet, whose Liberal party faces strong challenges from eco-friendly Teal candidates in several seats, said intervening to extend Eraring’s life was “not part of our plans.”

“We have an energy roadmap that delivers $32 billion in private sector investment to ensure we have a reliable and clean energy future over the long term. That’s our plan,’ he said.

The Prime Minister added that he and Mr Kean were ‘entirely on the same page’ about the future of the plant.

Mr Minns told Fordham that Australia’s energy market manager – the national regulator – “released a report last week saying we should be concerned about supply shortfalls in energy markets over the next 24 months”.

He said one of the reasons Labor plans to form a NSW Energy Security Corporation is because ‘we are concerned about exactly these things’.

“When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, we need to make sure we have enough power for the people of NSW,” Mr Minns said.

“Right now that’s not going to happen because Matt Kean hasn’t done the work to make sure there’s energy security within the grid.

“I cannot rule out further action regarding Eraring.

The coalition has sold all five of NSW’s coal-fired power plants since coming to power in 2011, while the previous Labor government sold NSW energy suppliers, but Mr Minns has ruled out further privatization if Labor takes power.

In February he said: ‘Privatization doesn’t work. It’s been a disaster for NSW and under Labor it stops.”

If Labor were to buy back Eraring it would be the opposite of privatisation, it would mean the state taking back control of a previously privatized asset.

If the buyback was about anything but a coal-fired power station, it would have the backing of the Labor left and the Greens.

But it does involve fossil fuels – and Mr Minns will have calculated that no matter how many votes the switch loses to the Greens and minor parties, the decision will come back in spades in the seats Labor needs to win in Western Sydney.