EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) has put on hold its Yallourn gas power project until further notice, due to deterioration in the wholesale energy market demand. East coast gas prices are also expected to increase beyond 2015, driven by $70bn of coal-seam gas export projects under construction in Gladstone and lower expected carbon prices making gas less interesting than coal for power generation.
The project consisted in a 1,000 MW gas-fired CCGT power plant in the Latrobe Valley on the 1,480 MW Yallourn Power Station site, where it would have replaced the four existing coal-fired units. It would have provided base-load power to Victoria’s electricity grid via a connection to the 500 kV Hazelwood-South Morang transmission lines. The project also included the development of a new 6.5 km gas pipeline, from the existing Longford to Dandenong Gas Pipeline to the power plant site, and a new overhead 500 kV transmission line (approximately 10 km long) to connect the proposed switchyard to the existing Hazelwood-South Morang transmission lines. The date for first gas-fired power from Yallourn had slipped from 2015 to 2017 in documents submitted to the Victorian government in June.
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