But it says that Snowy 2.0, if it delivered in the early 2020s as envisaged by Snowy Hydro and its government owner, would results in:

“Greater utilisation of existing coal-fired capacity (with reduced utilisation of GPG) and deferring some investments in additional solar generation in the 2020s, and

“More technological diversity in the renewable energy generation mix (an increased share for wind generation than the Neutral scenario), with less utility storage capacity in the long term.”

This graph above illustrates the modelled impact – with Snowy crowding out more than 500MW of solar and Tasmania’s “battery of the nation” project doing the same thing in the 2030s, although it would encourage more wind.

It is the short term outlook that is significant, and likely more predictable. AEMO’s modelling is based on the assumption that coal generators continue until the end of the technical life – 50 years – although it makes clear there is no guarantee there will be an economic case for them to do so.

Indeed, analysts such as Bloomberg New Energy Finance and ITK’s David Leitch say the introduction of more wind and solar over the next 10 years will worsen the financial outlook for coal generators because demand will be hollowed out, and coal generators are not flexible enough to deal with it.

That’s where Snowy 2.0 could help out – effectively using coal power to pump water uphill, before it is allowed to fall back down again and generate power for use when needed.

That will improve the use, and the business case, of the existing coal generators, helping them reach their 50-year technical targets.

It will be some time before there is enough wind and solar to generate the excess power that Snowy 2.0 could use to pump the water up hill.

But when it does, it is pretty clear that the shape of the grid will change dramatically, and there will be little room, or need, for coal generation or what is traditionally known as “base-load” – a term that AEMO barely uses in its 200-page document, apart from stating the obvious: