South Australia’s legacy coal fired power plants have been closed and the state is transitioning to a decarbon future with renewable energy. In just over 16 years the state has gone from less than 1 per cent renewables to an average of more than 70 -75 per cent generated by wind, solar and grid-scale battery storage. With decarbonisation gas is now the only remaining fossil fuel on the South Australia grid, and there is no hydro, geothermal or even biomass power to speak of.

Battery storage is filling the supply and grid-services gaps that have recently been the core business of diesel and gas peaker plants. Eventually, green hydrogen power and battery storage will deliver more to the grid than gas in South Australia. So Dry Creek is a relic of the industrial past — where once it operated at a capacity factor of 80 to 90%, it’s now operating a capacity factor of maybe 2-5%.

According to ElectraNet South Australia is expected to reach “net” 100 per cent renewables by 2027. Often South Australia has excess renewable power output, which is then exported to Victoria via the existing links. More new big batteries, and the new link to NSW to be completed in 2025/26 will allow more excess wind and solar to be exported and stored in coming years.

That will indicate that the old industrial era is coming to a close.