Labor says ageing coal-fired power stations need 'orderly' retirement plan

Labor is calling on the Turnbull government to create a national framework for the “orderly exit” of ageing power stations, with a transition plan for thousands of workers who will lose their jobs from station closures in coming years.

It also says the Turnbull government must stop funding new coal-fired power plants because commonwealth funding does not represent value for taxpayer dollars.

The Senate select committee’s draft report into the resilience of Australia’s electricity infrastructure was released on Monday.

It notes “the world is moving rapidly to decarbonise electricity supply and the current owners of coal-fired power stations were quite emphatic in telling this committee ... that they are getting out of coal and have no intention of building any more coal-fired power stations.”

It recommends reducing the settlement periods for energy providers from 30 minutes to five, introducing a market-based carbon trading scheme and extending the renewable energy target beyond 2020 to encourage a boom in battery storage.

But the views of its Labor committee members, found in a dissenting report, are tougher on the future of coal-fired power stations than the views of Labor colleagues in a separate committee report released last month.

Last month, Labor members of the Senate standing committee on the environment and communications – in a report on the retirement of coal-fired power stations – said the energy industry believed that direct investment in new coal-fired powered generations by the commonwealth would “very likely be unfeasible on any cost-benefit basis” but they stopped short of calling for an end to public funding for new coal-fired power stations.

But, in Monday’s report, Labor senators explicitly argued for public subsidies for new coal-fired power stations to end.

They said the government should “not provide public financing for new coal-fired power plants, noting such public support would not represent value for taxpayer money, violate notions of competitive neutrality and would not be consistent with meeting international emission reduction objectives”.

They also said the government should create a national framework to manage the orderly exit of ageing generators to avoid “chaotic, unplanned closures” that significantly impact on the electricity network.

They said ageing power stations should be required to provide notice of their intention to close.

The Greens’ energy spokesman, Adam Bandt, said Labor appeared to be shifting on coal and the overwhelming evidence to the inquiry demonstrated that the current rules and regulators were holding back investment in a more modern, resilient and decentralised electricity grid.

“I am pleased that some in Labor now agree with the Greens that no public money should go to building new coal-fired power stations, as the Turnbull government was urging,” he said. “It is also welcome to see Labor senators joining the Greens in calling for a national framework to retire coal-fired power stations.”

In Monday’s report, Liberal senators Chris Back and Jonathon Duniam used their dissenting report to dismiss nearly all of the committee’s main recommendations.

They say the committee – which was chaired by the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young – had produced a report “that is so biased it could have been written before the inquiry even commenced”.

“Coalition senators fundamentally reject the central tenant, conclusions and most recommendations of the chair’s draft report,” they said.