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AGL holds off plans to mothball gas-fired Torrens Island Power Station ahead of summer

An old power station in Adelaide set to be closed could shore up Australia's electricity grid during summer.

Electricity giant AGL was preparing to mothball parts of the 52-year-old gas-fired Torrens Island Power Station, and open the new Barker Inlet Power Station next door.

However, an ongoing outage at the coal-fired Loy Yang A Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley has prompted a rethink.

"We will use our generation portfolio in the adjacent regions of South Australia and New South Wales to support Victorian electricity requirements over the interconnectors," an AGL spokesperson told the ABC.

"This includes Bayswater and Liddell [in New South Wales], and Torrens Island.

"We are also expediting work on the gas-fired and hydro fleet to shore up their reliability and increase capacity ahead of summer."

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) would be hoping to avoid a repeat of January's load-shedding blackout in Victoria, when 200,000 customers lost power in a heatwave.

It told the ABC that a current outage at Loy Yang A, caused by an electrical short, was having no impact on supply.

"AEMO runs supply adequacy projections weekly, and we are in the process of running a range of different scenarios, including delayed return to service and unseasonably hot weather in late November and December," a spokesperson said.

Source: www.abc.net.au