Czech investor ‘excited’ to be coal-fired power’s white knight

afr.com:

Acquisitive power generator Sev.en Global Investments has heaped pressure on Origin Energy’stalks with government over a life extension for the Eraring power station, saying it wanted to buy more Australian power assets and had more appetite to manage coal’s gradual exit than most incumbents.

Czech-owned Sev.en added four years to the life of NSW’s Vales Point coal-fired power station in July, shortly before the NSW government asked Origin to extend the life of the Eraring coal-fired power station beyond 2025 to help avoid blackouts.

Sev.en’s Alan Svoboda says closure dates for coal-fired power may be too ambitious. 

Origin’s plan to shut Eraring in 2025 is a key plank in its emission reduction goals and the company is expected to seek financial support from the NSW government before agreeing to extend Eraring’s working life.

Former NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has suggested the cost to taxpayers could be close to $3 billion.

Sev.en chief executive Alan Svoboda said many of the official closure dates for coal-fired power stations were “too quick” and governments may find it cheaper to have Sev.en managing those assets’ final years given the Czech company had experience running power stations in Europe and, unlike some peers, was “excited” to own fossil fuel assets.

“Some of the closure announcements were probably too quick to make, and the system might not be ready for such loss of capacity,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“But at the same time I understand the current owners might have difficulty owning such assets in their portfolios, so that is where we could partner to either the owners or the government to be the intermittent operator until the assets can be phased out fully and replaced by clean sources.”

Mr