Solar Energy Pushes Muja Power Station Coal Units Into Retirement

Muja Power Station Circa 2001 – Image: Nachoman-au, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Western Australia’s McGowan Government has announced another two coal-fired electricity generation units at Synergy’s Muja Power Station will be retired from October 2022.

Muja Power Station is located 22 kilometres east of Collie and is situated near the Collie coal fields. The emissions-belching coal-fired clunker was first commissioned in 1966 and is the oldest power station in Western Australia. Muja is comprised of four 60 MW units (Stages A-B), two 200MW generating units (Stage C) and two 227MW units (Stage D). Stages C and D were commissioned in 1985.

Stages A and B were originally closed in April 2007, but it was decided in 2009 to refurbish them. $310 million was spent on the exercise and ran over several years, but Units 1 and 2 in particular were plagued by operational and reliability problems and mothballed in 2017. Units 3 and 4 followed in 2018.

Now the end is nigh for Stage C, with Unit 5 to close on October 1, 2022 and Unit 6 on October 1, 2024.

“To keep the two units operating at Muja C beyond these dates would cost Western Australian taxpayers in excess of an additional $350 million,” says a WA Government  press release. ” That is at least $350 million added to the State’s power bill, and a cost borne by every taxpayer in WA. It is no longer viable to keep the units operating.”

Solar Energy Eating Coal Power’s Lunch

The McGowan Government notes increasing levels of residential rooftop solar power has reduced demand for traditional coal-fired power generation in the state’s South West Interconnected System (SWIS). The SWIS extends from Albany in the south to Kalbarri in the north and Kalgoorlie in the east of the state, and includes Perth’s metropolitan area.

More than 300,000 small-scale solar power systems have been installed across Western Australia, the majority of these within the SWIS region. WA is also home to a number of large-scale renewable energy projects including Merredin Solar Farm, which is currently under construction. It’s expected the 132MW facility will be operational in the final quarter of this year.

“It is well-recognised a major transformation is underway in the Western Australian energy sector, as the take up of renewable energy and storage technologies increases,” said WA Energy Minister Bill Johnston. “As a Government, we need to carefully manage this change to keep energy prices down and deliver reliable electricity to Western Australians.”

Muja Stage C’s units 5 and 6 have only been operating around 35 per cent of the time, so their retirement will see stage D used more often – a more efficient and cost-effective approach says the release.

70-80 workers will be affected by the closures and the McGowan Government has committed to providing assistance.