AGL brings forward closure date of two largest coal-fired power plants as market shifts to renewables

Climate groups dismiss energy giant's amended schedule for Loy Yang A and Bayswater as a token effort' that is next to meaningless'

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Energy giant AGL has accelerated the closure date of its two biggest coal-fired power plants by several years, responding to a market shift towards renewable sources of electricity.

In an earnings statement on Thursday to the ASX, the soon-to-be-demerged energy company said its underlying first-half profit after tax fell 40.9% to $194m compared with a year earlier. Revenue rose 5% to $5.713bn.

The main interest for many, though, will be the acceleration of the closure plans for AGL's Hunter Valley-based Bayswater black coal-fired power station in New South Wales to no later than" 2033 from its previously scheduled demise of 2035, while its brown coal-fired Loy Yang A plant in Victoria will now close by 2045 rather than 2048.