Nexa Advisory welcomes the opportunity to share our views and insights on the Net Zero Economy Authority (NZEA) Consultation Paper. The NZEA has a strong leadership role to embed long-term decarbonisation goals into state climate and energy policy and ensure whole-of-government alignment.
As Australia’s largest power station, Eraring Power Station has played a key role in meeting scheduled electricity demand in New South Wales for over 40 years. Nexa Advisory recently undertook analysis into the power station’s performance, highlighting that it has experienced high downtime and frequent unplanned outages – and contributing significant emissions and local environmental impacts.
The scheduled 2027 closure of Eraring Power Station therefore presents urgent challenges and opportunities for the surrounding Communities of Interest and New South Wales more broadly. We emphasise the NZEA’s role to enable investment certainty and local job creation through the net zero transition.
Rapid expansion of CER represents substantial employment potential, particularly for local electrical trades and technicians. We consider these solar and battery retailers and installers represent ‘receiving employers’ following the closure of Eraring and encourage the NZEA to support this transition pathway.
The NZEA should leverage existing pathways to ensure the transitioning Eraring workforce can help to address these shortages.
Read the full report here: Nexa Advisory – NZEA Eraring submission