I know a lot of chatter inevitably either turns green vs coal...

I know a lot of chatter inevitably either turns green vs coal (its not woke) or political (energy policy) .... but IMO if there is one thing that these repeated peaks that are being caused by the price of coal, gas & oil are doing... it is making renewables so much more attractive to build at scale. Fixed production costs for the life of an asset??? why wouldn't you?

yes, it cant happen overnight
no, the sun doesn't always shine
no, the wind doesn't always blow
will coal, gas & oil prices always stay this high? - not likely - but periods of undersupply and oversupply are parts of the cycle - just currently compounded by global concerns.

but they are a hell of a lot cheaper to build than a new coal power plant... geographic spread will help smooth wind power production profiles and IMO its where the most money needs to be invested. BESS investment will help a lot with FCAS - but overscale of solar and wind will be the most cost effective approach

our fleet of coal plants are being held together by sticky tape. The article you referred to also points out just how many coal power plants have unplanned or scheduled maintenance occurring right now (especially in QLD) - and have reduced output as a result - which is causing the largest part of the problem regarding spot prices.

AGL should be having an absolute bumper of a quarter - which sadly will be for basically no additional return to shareholders due to the sunk costs of the abandoned demerger plans... but the higher prices will go a long way to offsetting that and the costs incurred with the Loy Yang repair
(perhaps this last point is why the SP is relatively flat?)...

I am starting to wonder what dividend will be offered next month (or if it will be suspended) as IMO AGL needs to move into a stage of generation fleet growth and development (which is desperately needs to ensure we meet our existing customer demands at a minimum)