some facts about the value of esg's gas, page-13

Rotoso,
You have hit the nail on the head with that question.
The current situation with the gentrader model and the approval of sites for the future generation requirements identified in the Owen report, is that the Govt. will rely on the private sector to provide this future capacity. This means that Macquarie Generation will not build a CCGT generator at Bayswater B. Similarly, as B&B are financially dead in the water, they will not be proceeding with their MOU either.
The positive thing for ESG is that the current politics will not allow another coal fired generator in NSW. Any future base/inermediate load will come from gas.
NSW electricity requirements are currently being supplemented regularly from Vic & Qld. There has been a haitus in providing for more baseload/intermediate generation capacity in NSW mainly due to the uncertainties surrounding the CPRS and, as a consequence, the sale of gentrader rights. There is however further peaking generation committed e.g. AGL/Appin & Tru Energy/Tallawong largly to supplement renewables as a result of the RET.
The NSW Govt. (and the opposition) are well aware of the potential gas supply from the Gunnadah basin and are aware of ESG to be the major supplier of that gas. Lack of an indigenous gas supply was highlighted in the Owen report -this situation is rapidly changing as ESG continues it's drilling programme. That is a good reason why ESG is fast tracking it's reserves upgrades.
It is also interesting to note the latest report from the AEMCommission which also recognises gas as an important generation contributer into the medium term future.
The AEMC also recommeds more localised generation capacity largly to overcome transmission losses but also to decentralise generation if there are tranmission failures on the network. Again a positive for gas.
It also makes the point that large scale wind generation will require peak generation backup i.e. gas (OCGT)

My view is that ESG will be a major supplier of gas to any future NSW base/intermediate/peak generation capacity.
I still have serious doubts as to whether the mooted Qld/Hunter gas pipeline will be viable proposition.

P