Mt Piper (MP1)

Mt Piper Unit 1 was commissioned in 1992 and originally built as a 660 MW machine, later upgraded to 700 MW in 2009. EnergyAustralia announced more than $80 million of operational upgrades in 2019 to expand capacity across the two turbines by 60 MW; this is treated as refurbishment/brownfield capex, not greenfield construction cost. No reliable plant-specific greenfield CAPEX for MP1 was found in the supplied sources, so no capex_total_aud or capex_per_mw_aud is populated.

Capex refers to the reported $80 million turbine upgrade announced in 2019, to replace major internal components of the two 700 MW turbines and add 60 MW total capacity by 2022. Mt Piper was commissioned in 1992-1993 and EnergyAustralia indicated in 2019 it was scheduled to operate until around 2042; later reporting noted closure brought forward to 2040 at the latest. No source-backed generator-specific fixed O&M, variable O&M, fuel price, heat rate, or emissions intensity was located in the provided results, so these remain unfilled.

Generator-specific capex found in media report for a 2019 turbine upgrade at Mt Piper of $80 million, described as replacing the majority of the internal components of the plant's two 700 MW turbines and adding 60 MW by 2022. No source-backed fixed O&M, variable O&M, fuel price, or contract terms were located in the provided results, so benchmark coal values were not used to avoid unsupported estimates. For operational assumptions, broad subcritical black-coal benchmarks were applied only where necessary: heat rate ~9.8 GJ/MWh, efficiency ~36.7%, emissions intensity ~0.9 tCO2/MWh, and asset life 50 years; these are indicative, not reported for Mt Piper. Closure timing has been brought forward from 2042 to 2040 at the latest according to the source set, and Mt Piper was originally scheduled to remain around until 2042 in 2019 commentary.

Provided search results confirmed Mt Piper units were commissioned in 1992 and 1993, upgraded in 2009, and Unit 1 upgraded again in 2023 to 730 MW. A Lithgow Mercury article quotes EnergyAustralia saying Mt Piper is scheduled to be around until 2042. No source-backed generator-specific capex, O&M, fuel price, heat rate, or emissions-intensity values were available in the provided results. Asset life is an estimate based on typical life of large coal steam units, not a reported Mt Piper-specific value.

No web search results were returned for this specific generator, so no source-backed generator-specific financial assumptions could be verified. Values remain unfilled rather than estimated to avoid presenting unsupported assumptions as facts.

Capex is the reported NSW budget estimate for construction of the Mt Piper Power Station scope of two 660 MW units at Portland, not a DUID-only MP1 cost. Capex_per_mw is calculated on the original two-unit 1,320 MW scope: AUD 1,767.199m / 1,320 MW = AUD 1.339m/MW, nominal early-1990s dollars. If allocated equally to MP1, an indicative half-share would be AUD 883.6m before any adjustment for later upgrades; that allocation is not reported. Fixed and variable O&M are technology-default assumptions for black coal from GenCost/AEMO-derived data, not Mt Piper reported costs; annual fixed opex is calculated for the current MP1 capacity of 730 MW. Emissions intensity is estimated from AEMO heat rate 9.25 GJ/MWh and Australian bituminous coal Scope 1 factor about 90.24 kg CO2-e/GJ, giving about 0.835 tCO2-e/MWh; CER facility data should be used where a specific year of reported output/emissions is required. Asset life is inferred for MP1 from Unit 1 commissioning in 1993 and EnergyAustralia's retirement by 2040. EnergyAustralia states both units were upgraded to 700 MW in 2009 and Unit 1 was upgraded to 730 MW in 2023 using modern turbine technology; Mt Piper is to transition toward lower-emissions firming/reserve operation before retirement by 2040.