Power plants mothballed as electricity demand dips

The soft wholesale electricity market is triggering the shutdown of more generating capacity, with AGL Energy advising it will mothball the older part of its Torrens Island gas-fired power plant in South Australia in 2017, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The four older units, known as the “A station”, comprising about 480 megawatts, would be taken out of service, AGL said on Wednesday.

The units were already shuttered between July and September this year, with no effect on supply to customers in the state, it said.

Former port boss Leo Zussino sees red over green ‘lies’

Leo Zussino, who ran Gladstone Ports Corporation for 13 years, says the resources sector is losing the public relations battle against environmental activists’ skilled emotional rhetoric that ignores the facts, according to the Australian Financial Review.

“[The activist movement] knows that there is not a man, woman or child in this nation who wants harm to come to the Great Barrier Reef and it ruthlessly exploits that fact,” he said.

Best option for Santos is equity raising, analysts say

Santos might be better off biting the bullet and carrying out an equity raising to provide funding for growth projects, rather than facing a future of depleting resources and production, some analysts say, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The oil and gas company reiterated this week it had no intention of raising equity now, and is expected to consider such a move only if its investment grade credit rating comes under threat.