A major outage at EnergyAustralia’s Yallourn coal power station is adding to Victoria’s growing energy problems, increasing the risk of electricity shortages during a period of high winter demand and a looming gas shortfall.
Unit 3 at the ageing 1480-megawatt Yallourn plant will remain offline for nearly three weeks after an air duct fell from a boiler during scheduled maintenance on Sunday. Another unit at Yallourn is also unexpectedly out of service, along with a unit at AGL Energy’s Loy Yang A plant, according to electricity market analysts.
The recent breakdowns have prompted low-level alerts from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), warning of limited reserve generation capacity in both Victoria and New South Wales earlier this week. These issues come as winter reduces solar output due to shorter daylight hours.
“Melbourne will face cold, dark, and still conditions until Friday evening,” said Josh Stabler, managing director at energy advisory firm Energy Edge. “With little help from wind or solar and several key coal units offline, the situation is becoming more difficult.”
Despite the outages, an AEMO spokesperson said electricity supply remains adequate to meet demand in the coming weeks.
Victoria is already under pressure from declining gas production in the Bass Strait, the largest source of gas for eastern Australia. This has raised concerns about gas shortages during peak winter days.
EnergyAustralia, owned by Hong Kong-listed CLP Group, confirmed that Unit 3 at Yallourn would be out for “at least two weeks” following Sunday’s incident. The company said no one was hurt and that WorkSafe was immediately notified.
“This is a serious issue and we are treating it with the highest priority,” a spokeswoman for EnergyAustralia said.
The Yallourn power station supplies around 22% of Victoria’s electricity and is scheduled to close in 2028 under an agreement with the state government. The company spent $400 million on maintenance at the site last year.
The damaged unit is not expected to return to service until June 28, according to market analyst Global-ROAM, which cited AEMO data. The unit had already suffered a tube leak last week, which was the reason it was undergoing maintenance. The other offline Yallourn unit is expected to be back earlier.
These issues come at a time of year when renewable energy output often drops. A similar pattern occurred early last winter, when low wind and solar generation coincided with a cold snap, pushing up gas demand and wholesale electricity prices.
However, Stabler said that gas storage levels are currently strong, with Victoria’s Iona storage facility holding record-high volumes for this time of year.
The outages add to a broader trend of reliability issues affecting Australia’s ageing coal-fired power stations, which still supply more than half of the electricity in the National Electricity Market, even as renewable energy continues to grow.
In Queensland, the Callide coal plant recently returned to service after a boiler explosion knocked it offline for nearly two months. That same facility experienced a more serious explosion in a separate unit in 2021.
