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Bayswater Power Station turns 40 as ageing infrastructure drives up energy bills
It has been 40 years since Bayswater Power Station near Muswellbrook first roared to life.
At its peak, Bayswater was the largest energy supplier to the New South Wales grid.
This week, past and present employees gathered to celebrate the past 40 years while staring down a future beyond coal-fired power.
Bayswater will not make it to 50, with the site scheduled to power down in 2033.
AGL's transformation lead Shaun Green said it could be daunting looking towards an unknown future.
"If you go back a decade, we had no idea that it would look like this," he said.
But he remained optimistic about the industry's future.
"It is very exciting what we've got planned with our future and the transition out of coal," Mr Green said.
Chris D'Hotman started at Bayswater as a mechanical engineer and is now the head of generation and revenue.
He said, despite the move away from coal-fired power, the staff had immense pride in their work.
"We do it because we know what we're doing is powering the economy," Mr D'Hotman said.
As the 2033 closure date looms, maintenance costs continue to rise and planned and unplanned outages increase at Bayswater.
It is part of a wider trend that contributes to rising power bills.
AGL will spend more than $130 million and switch off one of four units for planned maintenance at Bayswater this September, which it does on a four-year cycle.
Bayswater-Liddell general manager, Len McLachlan, said costs inevitably increased as infrastructure aged.
"Most of the equipment was built [in the 1980s] and mainly stays the same … so we do need to fine-tune it," he said.
"Definitely, ageing plants can contribute to [higher prices], but I think it's more so just the fact that the energy industry is changing so much.
A report from Reliability Watch using data supplied by power station operators to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) revealed how unreliable the power station was.
One of Bayswater's four units was completely offline from October 1, 2024, until February 19, 2025.
Meanwhile, there were nine other outages across the site's other three units between October and March.
The Australian Energy Regulator has warned NSW customers they are in for a hefty increase to their power bills of between 7.9 to 9.7 per cent from July 1.
AEMO has linked increasing outages at ageing coal-fired power stations in the final quarter of 2024 to record-high wholesale prices.
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis lead Australian electricity analyst Johanna Bowyer said that when power stations went offline for repairs and maintenance, more expensive forms of power, such as gas, were used to fill the gaps.
She said this pushed up wholesale electricity prices.
Bayswater has provided about 20 per cent of NSW's electricity over the past four decades.
But at Bayswater's age, Ms Bowyer said its days were numbered.
"We've seen coal generators over the age of 40 years decline to have an average availability of 65 per cent, so only 65 per cent of their capacity available to market," she said.
With coal-fired power stations set to close, renewable projects have been emerging to take their place, including plans for a solar panel manufacturing site at nearby Liddell Power Station.
Meanwhile, AGL is also pushing forward with its Hunter Energy Hub, which includes solar and wind projects as well as battery storage.
Chris D'Hotman said he "often considers" if he will need to change careers by moving into the renewable industry.
"Renewables are expanding at such a rapid rate," he said.
"It's something that we in the coal-fired sector ought to know more about."
