As the latest science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms, greater ambition and action will be required by society, including Origin, to limit the global average temperature rise this century to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The energy sector accounts for around three quarters of the world’s emissions, so meeting climate change goals will require significant changes to the global energy system. The energy transition is a multi-decade, large-scale transformation that will fundamentally change the way society sources, produces, supplies, distributes and uses energy, and will deliver a significant reduction in global emissions.
This transition also brings with it challenges, with the need to balance energy security, reliability, and affordability – particularly for the more vulnerable members of society.
As a leading Australian energy company with operations spanning retail, power generation and natural gas production, as well as a major employer with a footprint in many communities across the country, we recognise we have an important role to play in the transition to a low-emissions future. Our core belief is that decarbonisation is good of our customers and the environment.
Origin’s role in the energy transition
Our energy mix and the range of products and solutions we provide to our customers are evolving. First, we plan to speed up our exit from coal-fired power generation and accelerate the growth of renewables and storage in our portfolio. We’ve announced we’ll exit coal-fired power generation with the closure of our Eraring Power Station slated for August 2027.
We see a massive opportunity to increase our investment in renewables and storage over the coming years. We are progressing plans for a 700 MW battery on the Eraring site and have acquired around 1,600 megawatts (MW) of solar farm development projects.
In addition, we have ambitions to significantly grow the scale of our virtual power plant (VPP), which uses AI to help remotely manage thousands of connected devices – including rooftop solar and home batteries – across the country. When delivered, these large scale renewable and storage projects, combined with the growth in our VPP, will help replace the capacity from Eraring with low emissions energy sources.
The ongoing role of gas
Gas will remain important to ensuring the reliability of the energy system for many years. Gas power stations underpin reliable power supply for customers given the variable nature of renewable energy supply, for example when the sun doesn’t shine and wind doesn’t blow. Gas is also a major source of energy for heating homes in colder parts of Australia, and for many large businesses both here and in overseas markets, where Australia Pacific LNG exports gas as LNG.
Many business customers use gas as an input for industrial processes that will take a longer time to transition give that in some cases there are no clear, commercially viable alternatives available today.
Cleaner solutions for customers
We provide energy to millions of Australian households and businesses, and these customers are at the centre of everything we do. The needs and expectations of our customers are changing, and our products and services will need to evolve to address those future needs. We will achieve this through innovation, increasing low-carbon energy options and increasing cleaner energy in our generation portfolio.
Today, these products and services include rooftop solar and batteries, renewable and carbon neutral energy, electric vehicle solutions, and our energy savings rewards program Spike that incentivises customers to reduce energy during peak demand periods. This year we also established a new business unit, Origin Zero, which serves our large business customers and aims to accelerate the delivery of cleaner energy solutions to this segment.
Origin’s first Climate Transition Action Plan, launched in August 2022, outlines our strategy and ambition to lead the energy transition and details updated targets to accelerate emissions reduction across our business.
