Michelle Slater
AGL is being forced to extend its outage of unit two at Loy Yang A for another month after the generator went offline in April.
The energy giant announced earlier this week that the unit is now expected to return to service in the second half of October, after initially expecting the outage to last for four months.
This is the second time the outage has been extended. AGL first expected the unit to be brought back online in August, but it was then put back to mid-September.
AGL said a defect in a part was identified while testing was being carried out in the final assembly of the generator rotor.
It means the original equipment manufacturer General Electric needs to make the new part in Switzerland.
This same unit 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.
AGL will now change the outages at its other units to accommodate the delay with unit two.
The company will provide an earnings guidance at the end of this month to reflect the extension of the outage.
However, AGL stated that it did not expect that the extended outage would impact its earnings guidance for the financial year.
The outage is due be “offset by strong performance of the portfolio during August and September as other units have returned to service”.
AGL will also provide the outcomes of a strategic review that was announced in May, following its decision to drop plans to split the company into two separate entities.
