Coal is seen as the most reliable of the energy sources especially during periods of peak demand and the federal government opted for reliability of energy in the eastern states following the politically damaging blackouts in South Australia last year.

“I believe the changes made to [Alan Finkler’s national energy plant] last week were the right ones,” Buffier told the conference.

“The government has learnt about the benefits of HELE [high efficiency low emissions coal] coal in the last 12 months.”

Affordability is now an issue and it must be addressed along with reliability and emissions, Buffier said.

“Unless we address this issue we are going to see demand reduction,” he said.

The question of reliability will remain a problem as ageing coal fired powered plants are retired, according to Buffier.

“There is a high probability of blackouts in New South Wales and Victoria in the next two years,” he said.

While the government will be introducing more renewables into the domestic energy scene, Australian coal suppliers will continue to focus on exporting to Asia where demand will increase over the next 20 years, Buffier said.

“Coal is leading the charge in Asia,” he said.

India will double its coal supply by 2040 as well as increase its renewables tenfold as it attempts to provide power for all its population. Australia has room to increase its thermal coal exports to India from its present day 2 million tonnes per annum.