‘It can’t be left to the market’: the closure of Liddell power station and uncertainty of the future

Business leaders and local officials hope alternative generation projects and manufacturing will eventually fill the Liddell power station site in Muswellbrook. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

When AGL Energy was in a tangle with the Turnbull government over the future of its Liddell power station in 2017, it drew up an extensive scheme listing how it would replace the coal-fired plant with equivalent generation capacity.

The Generation Plan proposed a mix of renewable energy, gas-peaking plants and battery storage, some of which would be on or near Liddell’s site in the New South Wales Hunter Valley. Its sister coal-fired power station, Bayswater, would also get an upgrade.