The sales pitch for a proposed power station in North Queensland is shifting from ‘baseload’ to ‘flexible’ supply.

In 2020, the Federal Government gave Shine Energy $3.3 million to conduct a feasibility study into the Collinsville coal-fired power station in North Queensland. 

At the time, the government said the generator would provide “affordable baseload power”. 

But new information flyers show the language around the project has changed, with proponents now spruiking it as a “flexible HELE” (high-efficiency, low-emissions) plant.

“The project is being designed to ramp up and down and be placed on standby as directed by the Australian Energy Market Operator,” Shine Energy says.

“[The pre-feasibility study found] the increasing level of renewable generation, and in particular solar generation, has changed the role of coal power plants from baseload to load-following.”

Tim Buckley, a market analyst and the director of Climate Energy Finance, says the power grid does require some firming capacity to support large-scale renewable generation, but coal is the least flexible technology. 

“It’s technically possible [for a coal power station to be more flexible], but the ramp rate of a coal plant is a snail’s pace compared to gas peaking, and that’s snail’s pace compared to a battery,” Mr Buckley said.

“They may be able to build in some flexibility, but you’re talking [about] a really expensive piece of kit.”

He said the “flexible” coal plant described by Shine Energy would be “totally unbankable [without] massive ongoing government subsidies and a massive ongoing exemption from carbon pricing”.

The company also claims that coal will eventually be burned with “zero emissions” thanks to advances in carbon capture, storage and utilisation technology which have not yet occurred.