Workers told Loy Yang B ‘up for sale’

Workers were told in an onsite briefing this morning that Traralgon’s Loy Yang B could be up for sale, a Hazelwood employee has told The Express.

About 10am this morning, workers were told in a meeting or via video link of the company’s plans to close Hazelwood and sell off two other assets.

The Express understand these are Loy Yang B and the Kwinana plant in Western Australia.

The Express understands Hazelwood workers were told all eight units of the ageing power station would be shut down by the end of March next year.

“(There’s been talk of) different scenarios, but they never said to us they were going to shut the whole place down in one hit, this soon,” the Hazelwood worker, who asked not to be named, said.

“It was only through the media that we started hearing rumours like that.

“We were told the place would run in some way, shape or form until 2025. That’s what we’ve been led to believe.”

Following the briefing the Hazelwood worker told The Express it was a relief to finally know majority owner Engie’s plans, but “it is the worst possible scenario”.

The worker said Engie’s reasoning was that it was one of the “least profitable stations they were running” and had a lot of ongoing issues.

“They talked about exhaustive investigations on how to make the place more efficient,” the worker said.

“(They) couldn’t come to a conclusion, so they’ve said, ‘enough’s enough’.”

Engie in Australia chief executive Alex Keisser will address the media about the company’s generating assets at 2pm today.

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