'One of the younger dinosaurs': why Eraring needs to stay open

Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper has called for facts, not ideology, to determine when Eraring power station closes.

The plant's owner, Origin Energy, reached an agreement with the state government last year to extend the life of Eraring by two years through to August 2027 in order to provide stability to the grid.

However, momentum has been growing in recent months to extend the 2880 megawatt coal-fired generator again through to 2029.

Origin chief executive Frank Calabria recently said Origin was assessing security of supply, affordability and emissions before committing to a final plan for Eraring.

Mr Piper, whose electorate includes Eraring, said he would support keeping the plant going if it was needed to provide energy security.

"I believe that Eraring can rightly be called a dinosaur because of the type of technology (it uses), but it's also one of the younger dinosaurs, and it has the capacity to continue to produce power," he said.

"If we don't have certainty that we have enough renewable energy in the grid, I'm a big supporter of the transition to renewables, I think it would be very, very silly to be looking at an early closure of Eraring based on ideology."

NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe has previously said that any decision on whether to keep Eraring running would be entirely up to Origin.

"The future of Eraring is a matter for Origin," she said.

"We believe we (the government) have done the right thing by doing the extension in the way we have so that we can manage the exit of coal and the introduction of renewables."

In addition to generation capacity, delays in new transmission projects are adding further complexity to the progress of the clean energy transition.

One of those, the Hunter Transmission Project, runs through the western fringe of Mr Piper's electorate.

Mr Piper said he wasn't surprised that the rollout of new infrastructure was proving to be more challenging than initially envisioned.

"My experience in life, and certainly my political life, is nothing is ever simple," he said.

"This has become hugely complicated and quite controversial, and is even being opposed by people who support renewable energy because they don't want it in their backyards.

"And I understand that because the transmission lines are going through relatively sensitive areas. But you can only deal with what the map delivers you in terms of how you get across it. It's extraordinarily complicated."

The Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone REZ, which stretches from the Upper Hunter in the north to the Central Coast in the south and includes the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens regions, received final planning approval last month.

The one-gigawatt project is expected to create about 1000 jobs.

It will be the first REZ in Australia to upgrade existing distribution poles to minimise the impact on surrounding communities and the environment.