The new owner of Tasmania’s Boyer Mill says he has been left “shattered” after finding out there is not enough power in the state’s grid to support his planned $15 million move away from coal, even though he offered to pay an extra $10 million for electricity.
David Marriner, founder of the Marriner Group, told Local Radio on Monday that his company had secured federal government backing to install an electro-boiler system that would cut out the mill’s coal use within 18 months.
The Boyer Mill currently burns more than 80,000 tonnes of coal annually, pumping 180,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Marriner said the conversion would slash emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 30% of Tasmania’s cars off the road.
“The day that we took ownership, which was on the 14th of April, my wife and I were in Norway securing the delivery of a new electro-boiler system,” Marriner said.
But when he went to Hydro Tasmania for extra power, he says he was told the grid could not handle it or that the cost would make the upgrade commercially unviable.
Marriner said he was told on June 17 that additional power could potentially be sourced from Victoria, but at significant cost.
He rejected this option, arguing it would undermine the environmental benefits of moving away from coal.
“The moment we go back to connecting to Victoria, we connect to dirty energy again,” he said.
“Why in the hell would we be selling power to Victoria for us to buy power back from Victoria … dirty energy. [It] defies logic.”
Marriner, who describes himself as one of Hydro Tasmania’s top three or four customers with an annual power bill topping $40 million, says he offered to bump his payments up to more than $50 million for an extra 45 gigawatt hours of supply.
“We just want the same terms and conditions. We don’t want to be paying more than what our competitors are,” he said.
The power shortage means the mill is still burning coal while looking at other options, including importing it from the mainland.
“The reality is we write a cheque out today for another $4 million of coal … purchased for the next couple of months and we ship it in,” he said.
“People would find this laughable. We are now shipping coal in to furnish the mill from New South Wales.”
He warned that 340 jobs could be at risk if the mill becomes unsustainable, calling the situation “immoral” and saying there needs to be a “sobering debate” about Tasmania’s energy policy.
Marriner says Hydro Tasmania’s job is to provide affordable power for industry and that losing big industrial customers would eventually push up costs for households.
“The net effect of Tasmania losing all its base load customers will be a huge additional cost to Tasmanian power,” he said.
Hydro Tasmania chief executive Rachel Watson told Pulse there are options for more power.
“Hydro Tasmania can source the additional energy required to supply Boyer Mill’s request for more power and have been in discussions around a commercial price,” she said.
“The details of our contracts with major industrials are commercial in confidence.”
Watson said Hydro’s network has a total capacity of more than 2,600 megawatts across 30 power stations and more than 50 major dams.
She said new renewable energy projects will start feeding into the grid in the coming years.
“Hydro Tasmania has agreed to buy energy generated from the Northern Midland 288MW Solar Farm, which will come online in 2027,” she said.
“There are a number of other private wind and solar farms in various stages of development.”
Labor’s Janie Finlay said change is needed to get new developments moving faster.
“No new energy generation has been commissioned since 2020,” she said.
“This is an energy crisis caused the energy policies of this Liberal government.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff pointed to Marinus Link as being crucial to kickstarting more renewable energy projects.
“What Marinus means is more investment in Tasmania in renewable energy,” he said.
“More solar farms, wind farm development to ensure that we have the power in the future to support our major industrials and major employers.”
