Michelle Slater
Unit two at Loy Yang A could be out of action for the next four months after it was taken out of service last Friday due to an electrical fault with the generator.
Operator AGL released a statement that it was investigating the cause of the fault and was working with relevant authorities and technical experts.
“AGL is currently assessing the length of any resulting outage that may occur at Loy Yang A unit 2 as well as any measures that may be taken up to mitigate the impact of the outage,” the statement said.
“On a precautionary basis, AGL has informed the Australian Energy Market Operator that the length of the outage may be until August 1, 2022, subject to a completion of this assessment.
“AGL notes this estimate is highly preliminary and subject to change.”
The failure comes after unit 2 was taken offline for seven months in 2019 while crews worked to fix an electrical short inside the generator that damaged the stator and rotor components.
The outage had sparked a warning from AEMO that year that up to a million households could face blackouts if unit 2 and AGL’s Mortlake gas plant were not back online for the summer peak.
AGL said it expects to inform the market in the first week of May of any financial impact of the latest technical fault and timing of the outage once these assessment occurred.
