The owner of one of Victoria’s large coal-fired power stations has implored the federal government to step in as the lender of last resort to the industry, as banks withdraw from fossil fuels and make it harder for coal plants to secure debt.

Alinta Energy, which runs the Loy Yang B coal-fired generator in the Latrobe Valley, has recently gone through what managing director Jeff Dimery described as an “exceedingly difficult” process in seeking refinancing for the facility.

“The number of parties that started out saying they were willing to participate in that underwriting diminished greatly from the start to the finish line,” Mr Dimery told the Credit Suisse Australian Energy Conference on Thursday.

As a growing number of banks and insurers continue withdrawing from coal lending due to its contribution to global warming, Mr Dimery called on Canberra to consider stepping in to help prevent the sudden shutdowns of cash-strapped coal-fired power stations and the “disorderly” exit of coal from the energy grid.

“One of the areas to consider on this smooth transition to a low-carbon economy is whether government becomes a lender of last resort for the remaining life of those types of assets,” he said.

“Because clearly ... there isn’t a whole lot of people that want to put money into those sorts of vehicles on a go-forward basis.”

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Across the country, coal-fired generators are under pressure from an influx of cheap renewables pushing down daytime wholesale power prices and threatening their viability. This year, EnergyAustralia brought forward the closure of Victoria’s Yallourn facility to 2028, four years ahead of schedule, and there are industry-wide expectations that more closures will follow.

As power generation is a dominant source of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, the impending closures of coal plants will help reduce the carbon footprint of the fossil fuel-intensive energy market, which relies on coal and gas for about 80 per cent of the nation’s needs.