The Basslink cable has gone down again, and is expected to be out of action til mid-October. Luckily for Tasmania, the dams are at 45% full. However in Victoria, which sits on one of the largest brown coal reserves in the world, currently prices are hitting $300/MWh every morning and every evening at peak time. This graph below shows 5 minute prices for the last two days in Victoria. Every dollar Victoria saves at lunchtime from solar generation is lost a few hours later, and then some. Though it’s wrong to use the word “saves” at any time of day. The wholesale price of brown coal power for years was $30/MWh, and this below is a wholesale price graph. Even the lunchtime “low prices” are twice as expensive as brown coal which can supply all day, every day and for hundreds of years to come and doesn’t cause voltage surges, frequency instability, or house fires, and doesn’t need backup batteries, demand management schemes, free movie tickets, or dark hospitals.
The AEMO must be counting their lucky stars that this happened at probably the “best” time of year when demand is lower.
….
The effect of the Basslink outage is presumably obvious above the noise of the monthly graph of 30 minute prices in Victoria (see the last three days of thick red spikes). However, the biggest bonfire of money on the Victorian grid is the forced energy transition “every day”. Just look at the prices from 2015 (blue) when Hazelwood coal was still running and compare them with prices this year (red). That’s what the renewables revolution does.
Victorian prices, AEMO, August 2015, August 2019.
At lunchtime even with all those Victorian solar panels working, SA and QLD were keeping the lights on in Victoria.
….
Naturally, this will increase the calls for another Basslink, which will help renewables. Better yet, would be to spend that same money on reliable generation.
Details or any news of the Basslink outage are thin:
On Monday, Basslink investigators found a failure in the low-voltage cable, which had caused the interconnector’s Direct Current Protection system to trip.
They say the problem is in an above-ground section of the low-voltage cable in the transition station in Victoria. — ABC News
A twitter search on #basslink:
Another outage for #Basslink #HVDC, this time on the metallic return of the #monopole but at least on land. Out till mid-October
Engineers might want more details – see this thread.
h/t Dave B.
…
We can’t mine brown coal and burn it to provide electricity but Premier Andrews recently announced a plan to mine it, extract the hydrogen from it, sequester the CO2 and methane, and export the hydrogen. Recently I did a survey and one of the questions was do I support supplying hydrogen as well as gas to provide energy. Seems to me that it is too expensive to extract the hydrogen for domestic use only, so they will do the same as they have with gas, export it at low prices, the import some of it it back and charge high prices.
211
So, not only does Andrews believe there is a commercial process for extracting Hydrogen from coal, he also doubles down by believing there is a prooven process for CO2 sequestration ?
The man has 5h!t for brains !
290
Lets face it, he appointed and supports D’Ambrosio, in Energy and Environment. That says it all really. Not sure what size train wreck it takes to get his attention.
20
Burning hydrogen only produces water.
Hang on isn’t that the predominant green house gas. When will the greenies cotton onto this.
Will they have egg on their face or will they create another lie to cover themselves.
In their parallel universe, it may become the “good” greenhouse gas
Who knows, when you belong to a cult you, by definition, are gullible and will believe whatever your guru tells you
150
Mal:
there are good Greenhouse gases such as water vapour and “natural” CO2, and there is EVIL, Global Destroying, Man Made CO2. Only the initiates can tell the latter apart, because only they can “see CO2”.
They do admit that water vapour is responsible for two thirds of Global Warming, although those who have studied mathematics (or even simple arithmetic which is beyond most Greenies) and have experience with I.R. spectra would put that figure rather higher, about the overworked figure of 97%. Also they admit that warming would be made much worse by extra water vapour evaporating. Fortunately there has been no sign of this happening in the last 30 years (and a few thousand before that).
There are other reasons to question the use of hydrogen, v. wide explosive limits in air, leak proof? storage, invisibility and lack of odour (hard to detect leaks), loss of energy when made, difficulty in handling, and cost.
100
Oh! It costs too bloody much too.
90
It doesn’t only produce water. That only happens when it’s just H and O. Air has loads of nitrogen. There are Nitrogen oxides produced as well.
50
Won’t work.
People who talk glibly about “the hydrogen economy” don’t know much about hydrogen and its Houdini properties.
.
Hydrogen is slippery. You can contain it, yes, but only for short periods — long enough to transport and (quickly) use locally. There isn’t a stopper or a seal it doesn’t get past. Put it in a laboratory pyrex bottle and it diffuses through the glass. Put it into a gas cylinder under pressure and it diffuses through the metal (this shortens the life of the cylinder from embrittlement).
Remember: hydrogen is a single proton with a (loosely) attracted electron. H2 is two positively charged (and hence mutually repellent) protons held together by two loosely attracted electrons orbiting both protons.
Coal gas is a mixture of hydrogen, methane, and (mostly) carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is odourless and just loves attaching itself to haemoglobin, which, once attached, it doesn’t like letting go. This wonderful propensity means that it can be fatal in even small quantities. It’s why a very strong and unpleasantly smelly gas is added to coal gas. If you can smell it, then you’ve got a leak and you open windows and doors to ventilate the premises and find the leak, but not with a candle or a match (see the Darwin Awards for reasons) .
Because hydrogen is such an escapologist, the best way to store it is to attach it to carbon atoms. CH4 (methane) can then be polymerized into long chains (hydro-carbons). The hydrogen doesn’t escape from those. This is probably the safest and most effective method of storing and transporting hydrogen. C10H14 is a very useful form of hydrogen storage.
We call it petrol.
It would be cheaper to catch and bottle the solar wind … which is mostly protons …
(ionised hydrogen) After all: it’s free — it’s continuously thrown at us in billions of tons daily by the sun.
</sarc>
120
The last “cunning plan” i heard for hydrogen storage and transport, was to combine it with nitrogen to produce ammonia, which could then be stored and transported before being “stripped” out again and the nitrogen reused.
https://phys.org/news/2018-01-link-solar-hydrogen-ammonia.html
Sounds technically feasible, but financially impractical !
20
Chad:
Yes, ammonia burns in air, and gives off a energy but does it amount to a feasible process?
World annual production of ammonia is around 150 million tons. Why isn’t some of it burnt for energy?
Could it be that the electricity generated is less than that used to produce it?
Ammonia is made by the Haber-Bosch process (discovered before 1910) which involves high temperature
(450-600 ℃) and high pressure (3,000 p.s.i.). Do you get it back? Unlikely.
Ammonia boils at minus 33.6℃.
There might be some difficulties in distribution; have you smelled it in high concentrations?
10
There is nothing virtuous in “saving the planet” by governments causing citizens to suffer cold in the dark.
The mad, irrational rush for the cliff-edge to “combat” climate change is one of humankind’s worst avoidable blunders.
180
If governments do not borrow according to the creditor wishes, the government goes broke. Big gov is constrained to meet creditor demands and if it means having a trillion dollar tab on renewables, then the gov must comply. Nothing to do with humankind blundering, other than failing to recognize a loan shark.
40
By now,everyone who can read a power bill knows renewables are unreliable, very expensive, and degrade the wildlife and environment.
But, for most people on the left it is impossible to ever admit a mistake.
So with the left and the useful idiots renewable energy and costs skyrocket and reliability is nonexistent.
Australian voters have the ability to stop all this nonsense and bring back cheap power and reliable energy. Vote for those on the right who put Australia first.
70
I seriously doubt there is yet a general level of awareness that you describe. They will still have “downward pressure” and “unreliable coal” ringing in their ears. Sadly I think the lights need to go out and the AC needs to stop for a protracted period over summer for reality to hit. Even then the spin doctors will be in overdrive as per SA.
30
Curious that the ABC gang, so ready to decry unreliable coal fired power stations, is silent on the manifest unreliability of the ten year old Basslink interconnector.
210
Serp:
They are inner city dwellers. They know that Tasmania exists but they don’t people want to know about it, let alone be sent there to search for stories; which they might be if it appears that they know anything about the place.
Besides the ABC is expert at avoiding mentioning things.
150
Quite a bit on local ABC Radio (936) about the outage highlighting the ongoing ‘unreliability’ of Basslink.
Heard this news yesterday morning before 7.30am yesterday.
However, policy ‘influencers’ will use this event as another push to install a second cable – whilst Tasmanians still wait to reap the promised ‘rewards’ from the first Basslink.
40
This is all because we couldn’t afford sharks with freaking laser beams on their heads.
We had to settle for Mutated Sea Basslink.
It’s also, apparently, very ill-tempered.
40
Lasers, Andrew?
Are you wanting to make a maritime LIGO Gravity Wave Detector?
Here’s a possible reason for the Basslink unreliability:
Australia is currently moving toward Eurasia at the rate of 6–7 centimetres a year.
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Australia ]
That’s about a metre every 14 – 15 years.
Or 7 metres every century … almost faster than a racing snail.
As Andy pointed out: the cable gets stretched.
Oops: time to insert another section.
Tasmania is not part of the Australian continent — Bass Strait opened up when Australia detached from Antarctica, and Tasmania is a `lost’ or remnant part of Antarctica.
30
Poor tax-payers,
fer evah
doomed ter
pay fer guvuh-
mint white elephant
misadventures.
130
Poor debt slave interest payers.
for ever doomed indeed
30
The white elephant in the room is bigger than the room 🙂
60
Yes ES , happens when you go down the rabbit hole.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alice_par_John_Tenniel_11.png
20
Apologies fer double click. (
10
Yes ES , happens when you go down the rabbit hole.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alice_par_John_Tenniel_11.png
20
Doing a Mad Magazine “complete the ad” on the old Victorian number plate message:-
“Victoria – the place to be FROM”
130
One has to wonder who the hell are the beurocrats who advise this wacko of a premier in Victoria.
Where does his abysmal thought process come from? Victoria’s energy policy can only end in to total blackout. You can blame Andrews for his blind incompetence but you also have to ask yourself ‘what sort of voting public put him into power?’
It has to be something in the water.
GeoffW
130
Geoffrey, if they have water, they’re doing relatively well for Australia.
70
until the wind stops blowing, then the demand from up north increases, and the interconnector to NSW trips? happy days 🙂 can’t wait
100
I meant to write demand increases in Vic on the supply from up north….
50
Oh great , the 8 hours without power yesterday was probably a training run for summer !
110
The Basslink outage is under the radar for most people, so is the current critical wind dependant status of Victoria – Qld / NSW interconnector running flat out to keep NSW afloat with a bit for Victoria. SA has a fair bit of wind also helping struggling Victoria. Tasmania out of the race.
If the wind drops its bedtime in the dark.
80
Coming soon: The Andrews government brings Victorians subsidised kero lamps.
90
Clicked on a weather article today. “Tasmania will have a maximum of 11C.” “Over 100 millilitres of rain is expected.”
Doesn’t someone edit these things? Probably the editor wouldn’t know these two statements are wrong either!
40
> 100 ml of rainfall in total across Tasmania is a pretty safe forecast at this time of the year.
00
We seem to like a bit of alarm for people who critique alarmists.
01
Dan’s cap on solar installations was close to annihilating the rooftop solar industry in Victoria. The cap roughly halved the number of installations per month. The last two months were fully taken in a matter of minutes. The cap has been revised from 3333/month to almost 10,000/month. This is a $2225 gift from Victorian taxpayers to anyone owning a roof; curtesy of Dan and Lily. Payback for actual expenditure will be around 2 years.
https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/victoria-triples-number-of-rooftop-solar-rebates-on-offer-for-september/
Rooftops are pushing grid scale intermittents into curtailing output in QLD and SA on a daily basis when their output is at a useful level. Coal generators have got smarter in their bidding. Also the price of LGCs is reducing, eating away at the subsidies paid to intermittents. The coal generators can hang in at negative prices in the knowledge they can make good money through the morning and evening peaks. They also make money for frequency control and other services.
Increased transmission charges and transmission bottleneck are also making it harder to justify new intermittent generating projects:
https://reneweconomy.com.au/john-laing-takes-120m-hit-on-renewable-projects-from-marginal-loss-factors-36891/
Two posts I made on this story were moderated out of existence – another site where understanding and knowledge is a long way behind spin.
Basslink has not achieved a repair deadline yet so the October date could easily slip. Often one fault is indicative of a design or installation flaw so good prospects for continuing issues. Who is ready for more of Audrey’s “load management”?
80
RickWill:
South Australians can access $4,500 – $6,000 subsidy towards a battery hooked up to their solar PV.
I can see the “advantage” for the citizen without solar – SPEND $18,000 and get $4 or 5 thousand subsidy. Applies to renters as well as owners, and the advantage is that the ‘duck back curve’ is extended into the evening peak. Thus, instead of pushing excess solar electricity into the grid with a feed in tariff of 8¢ a kWh, the noble citizen stores this and uses it in the early evening instead of (high demand and priced) conventional electricity.
So with an average usage of 18kWh per day (half at night for the hot water) the noble citizen saves at best (45 minus 8) 37¢ a kWh for about 6 kWh. A payback time of 27 years.
There will be a local meeting next Monday to explain the scheme. Probably BillinOz will be at the Mt. Barker Bowling Club starting 6 pm. I won’t be there.
80
With no explanation that the payback period is far longer than the expected operating life of the battery pack.
90
Won’t using the battery cause increased prices as other operators compensate for the new losses during peak times? Seems “death spiral” would be a good term for all of these twists and turns.
60
I doubt anyone will buy batteries that have a payback of 27 years. On the other hand I would need to do the sums myself to be confident about the payback. If I could get batteries for $100/kWh (as has been promised for a long time) then I will go off grid when my FIT runs out in 2024.
One issue that will dominate in SA soon is the ability to push energy into the grid at lunchtime. So the 8c/kWh FIT may not be realised in the near future so the 37c/kWh becomes 45c/kWh. I would not be surprised if SA approaches negative grid demand at lunchtimeSunday in late October early November this year. Also, I am not sure SA has seen its peak average price yet. There are synchronous condensers to pay for as well as more interconnections. SA is pushing for the link to NSW but trying to convince NSW that it will be good for them (like it was for Victorians!!!!). Sa should pay the bulk because it adds demand to reduce the amount of time the wind generators are priced out of dispatch.
The first step in any battery installation is to reduce demand then shift nighttime demand to daytime if possible. Using electricity to heat water in most parts of Australia is wasteful. The best I have seen is solar water heater on the roof and LPG bottle back-up. This is common in Brisbane and the gas is not even used for maybe 8 months of the year. I know a family of 5 that gets more than a year out of a bottle of gas.
As well as shift as much load to daytime as possible, run non-critical loads only when sun is shining (pool pump is classic for this), go off grid to save the service fee.
I do not know what strings are attached to the battery subsidy schemes. They may not permit those subsidised to go off grid as they view the battery as adding system stability. A service fee of $1.15/d gives over $4,000 in ten years. If the batteries are providing a stabilising service then the service/connection fee should be reduced.
10
“…SPEND $18,000 and get $4 or 5 thousand subsidy. Applies to renters as well as owners….”
When is the last time a renter spent $1.50 let alone thousands on a non transportable asset addition to a landlords property? especially when leases are typically 6 and 12 months.
10
See my last post for how the ABC is spinning this into a crisis that is “holding back renewables” from rescuing us from our aging coal plants.
As for RenewEconomy, most of us have given up posting there since Giles Parkinson has the ability (and frequently put it to use) to eliminate all comments that threaten to undermine the narrative of the “inevitable transition” to renewables. I gave up a couple of years back after spending considerable time posting reasoned, calculated arguements to counter the notions presented in the articles and the groupthink agreement only to have the posts disappeared. Others here have been banned on the site for pointing out the intellectual limitations of some of the regular contributors and posters there.
20
Slowly but surely, the what-is of reality is asserting itself over the whims, feelings, and commandments of the psychotic politicians. Politicians who believe they control the foundations of existence by simply commanding it to be what they wish it to be. As always, a price is paid, not by the politicians but by we mere mortals who are trying to live and let live. It is human sacrifice that is much more subtle, as that of the ancient Incas and Aztecs, but it is as sure and devastating in the long run.
Yet they continue to get away with it. Why?
110
They’re only getting away with it because of luck , a big blackout is not far away and when the luck runs out the sheeple will widen up .
100
That’s what they want, so they can privatise power blackouts too.
30
It is worse than that. They design it to fail so they can use the failure as justification of doing more of the same. They will recycle failure until the total system collapses or we do something about it.
Will we do something about it, soon enough to do some good? I am waiting for a sign that the answer is yes.
80
Not sure its that bad, even in SA they have established real generators to back up their renewables games. I expect that the same will happen in VIC, we may even get a “look squirell!!!” battery to distract from the fact that everything we have been told in recent years is BS.
20
On Sky News Alan Jones tonight said that politicians will not wake up until the big blackout scares them.
Maybe, but when it happens voters will be furious with no electricity, food going off, and all the other inconveniences.
Sooner the better in my opinion because until that time our economy will continue to struggle as businesses close down and many more move offshore.
140
I am interested to see how the current recycling debacle plays out in VIC. In SA they has a succesful plastics recycler that had to shut due to energy costs. I dont see how VIC is different, but then I guess I dont posess the genius of a D’Ambrosio.
20
I am praying that there are blackouts this summer and I hope city folk are also affected rather than just country areas and factories. Who is affected will be subject to political decisions and unfortunately the wimpish Victorian opposition will be totally invisible. Blackouts will have to be so widespread and prolonged that Dan and his mad policies cannot escape blame.
130
I am still struggling with the VicGov paying businesses to stop operating when electricity supply is struggling to meet peak demand.
70
Don’t struggle Dennis.
Businesses are no more than a Capitalist manifestation of greed and corruption. Businesses are the old economy. Now we have new-socialism.
New-socialism is a live experiment being conducted in Victoria to prove that socialism really can be made to work.
In Victoria, this time, they’re convinced it will be different. After all, they’re absolutely convinced, they’re smarter than anybody else.
Who needs electrons in the new-socialist Utopia, comrade?
80
If at first you don’t succeed,
try again ‘n again ‘n again…
tho’ madness means doin’ the same thing
again ‘n again ‘n again ‘n expectin’
a different result. Play it again, Sam,
go on play it, Sam, play it again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTE3sMM2H9I
30
Too true Beth.
Don’t forget to look before you leap – just don’t hesitate, you may get lost.
10
Fantastic news! I trust Comrade Dan can explain the gist of this to his electorate. It will get much worse!
80
Victorian electorates include Brandts and Setkas.
I wouldn’t expect too much enlightenment from those types.
60
The sad reality is that Josh Frydengerg, the author of Turnbull’s NEG is as much to blame for the impending energy disaster as socialist premiers like Andrews and Weatherall. He was an enthusiastic contributor to Turnbull’s delusions and regularly promoted massive increases in renewables, while all the time hiding the true costs to voters. He remains suspect on this topic today.
50
He is just a “tell the boss what he wants to hear” ladder climber. He will support enthusiastically whatever the boss says and will easily pivot 180 degrees if the next boss says the opposite. Woe betide us if he becomes the boss. Prime Minister Josh, cant be a real thing can it?
30
ABC (7:30) , are pushing the line promoted by Zimmerwoman , that the problem is not shortage of generation but the inability of the grid to cope with distributed RE generator input.
The call is now for more investment in the grid to allow more RE to be added !
The rot is deep !
Meanwhile ,on Sky New, Jones and Richo with MP C Kelly, served up a large portion of reality regarding Government failure to respond to imminent energy crisis. No Punches pulled there.!
140
notice how both outlets have viewship in the hundreds of thousands, meanwhile the rest of country rolls on oblivious , but very up to date on Orange Man Bad, AFL/NRL results and “celebrity” gossip.
10
I note Australia’s largest energy company, AGL, made a record profit of over a billion dollars last year. Somebody is getting rich from the high wholesale electricity prices. AGL have plenty of cheap generation from their Loy Yang and Bayswater coal units in Vic and NSW. They spout a lot of nonsense about renewables but bank mucho cash flow from consumers.
92
Zane,
Do us all a favour, please.
What is AGL’s return on capital?
What is its dividend yield?
60
In five seconds, SS:
Summary of AGL FY19 results vs. FY18
Statutory Profit after tax: $905 million, down 43 percent
Statutory earnings per share: 138.0 cents, down 43 percent
Underlying Profit after tax: $1,040 million, up 2 percent
Underlying earnings per share: 158.6 cents, up 2 percent
Net cash from operating activities: $1,599 million, down 25 percent
Final dividend: 64 cents per share (80 percent franked), up 1 cent per share
Return on equity: 12.5 percent, down 0.6 percentage points
40
Zane is right. When wind pushes up the prices, coal stations make out like bandits — they get paid the same higher rate.
It’s in AGL/Origin/Ergon/etc’s interest to shut just enough coal to make prices leap, but keep just enough coal going to reap the profits…
80
did you mean “make”? I’m not sure that bandits are noted for their amorous behavior
12
Unfortunately, our dumb country will not realize the real predicament we are in with a few blackouts.
Even more unfortunately, it is going to take multiple deaths in hospitals to make people realize just how ludicrous the current and developing situation is.
The LNP does not have much to crow about. They are only marginally less stupid than the ALP/Greens in relation to energy supply.
The CO2 horsesh*t has to stop.
90
With Liddell closing down and the promise it will be replaced with enough intermittent energy added to a dodgy Tasmanian extension cord into Victoriastan it’s almost like the village idiots are in charge .
70
Almost? No, it is very much like it.
80
“Almost”. “Like”.
Why so equivocal? The idiots ARE in charge of the village with Red Dan in the lead, and loonie Lily right (or is that left) behind
30
Lily…a trusty lieutenant…always there with the fixed grin…smiling….nodding…and very out of her depth in my opinion
10
didn’t realise Jo had a new thread, so have been posting stuff on Unthreaded, including:
28 Aug: REchargeNews: Orsted blow as plan to double size of UK offshore wind farm blocked
Crown Estate says it can’t rule out adverse environmental impact of 573MW Race Bank Extension
by Andrew Lee
Plans to double the size of the Orsted-led 573MW Race Bank offshore wind farm – already among the UK’s largest – have been blocked by Britain’s seabed landlord citing environmental fears.
The Crown Estate said a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) it conducted of the Race Bank Extension plan could not rule out “an adverse effect” to a conservation area off Eastern England.
The body – which runs leasing on the seabed off England and Wales – said seeking special derogation for the project under Habitats Regulations would be a “first for the offshore wind sector” that would delay the award of rights for seven other projects seeking extensions, so it had decided not to do so “at this stage”…
Danish offshore wind giant Orsted owns 50% of the existing Race Bank wind farm, which entered service in 2018. Investment group Macquarie (37.5%) and Japan’s Sumiotmo own the rest…
Orsted said in a statement sent to Recharge: “The Crown Estate has not awarded Race Bank Extension an Agreement for Lease (AfL) at this stage. However, we are in ongoing discussions with The Crown Estate to explore next steps and the potential routes available to ensure that Race Bank Extension remains an option for the future.”
Last year Orsted said Race Bank Extension was “a great addition to our pipeline of development projects in the UK”. The decision is another blow to Orsted, which was recently told it faces a regulatory inquiry into the role of its Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm in a huge UK blackout…READ ALL
https://www.rechargenews.com/wind/1842970/orsted-blow-as-plan-to-double-size-of-uk-offshore-wind-farm-blocked
50
Vic average daily prices since Saturday when link failed:
Sat $51; Sun $110; Mon $133; Tues $124; Wed $136. (Aug avge $103)
And of course when wind was needed it dropped away:
Sat 2.7-3.8 GW; Sun 0.7-2.8; Mon 0.4-1.1; Tues 0.8-1.7; Wed 1.7-3.1.
Gas and hydro have increased to meet demand.
Tas daily prices $25; $1; $42; $17; $42 (Aug avge $73)
40
Why is Tasmania’s wholesale price so variable? It is dead easy to match supply/demand at a steady price with so much hydro available.
It looks sus to me, they should be paying no more than $20.
20
Seems like a game of poker – who blinks first when they all want some daily cash flow.
10
ABC etc reporting that the energy crisis means the SA/NSW interconnector , and the BASSLINK 2 are now top priority infrastructure projects…
…TO ALLOW SA TO SUPPORT NSW DURING PEAK SHORTAGES !!?
10
Oops ! Should have added..
After the closure of Liddel.
10
Chad:
Relative sizes of the State’s economies? SA couldn’t support the Griffith area.
00
The ABC is at it again, last night, railing against the “gold plating” of suburban grids (prior to all the home PV systems rolled out through solar
rebatessubsidies that dropped AVERAGE utilization without lowering PEAK requirements) while lambasting the short-sightedness of not previously “investing” in HT transmission lines from the boondocks into the cities (instead of the wimpy ones that can “only” supply the locals) which is now “holding back renewables” being developed in these boonies.But Audrey Zibelman says
So hey, let’s get on with wiring up vast tracts of farming and wilderness regions to catch that “somewhere” where the wind is always blowing and/or the sun is always shining.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-28/outdated-transmission-infrastructure-stopping/11458662?section=business
30
Audrey Zibelman is unrepentant about her pivotal role in having Hazelwood removed from the grid and looks forward to years and years of increasingly expensive failing attempts to emulate baseload with technologies not fit for that purpose, but hell, it’s not her money.
As to “looking at the reality of what we’re confronting right now” she blatantly ignores the reality of the energy consumers for whom the energy grid was intended to provide continuous supply at the steadily reducing cost normally arising from economies of scale; on the contrary, my bills have tripled in twenty years and I suspect will triple again over the next five years of what Audrey and gang’s policy settings have dictated to be an increasingly interrupted supply.
40
How expensive do you think it would need to get and how much blackouts before the population at large starts kicking up a stink and realises shutting down the baseload wasn’t great idea?
20
John,..
…. dont expect much reaction from “the population at large” …. the vast majority do not understand what makes their lights work, or why they sometimes do not work.
All they want is lower electricity bills , and are happy to believe whatever their favorite TV host tells them will make it cheaper. Loudest voice wins !..sadly .
40
Look at the bright side… ABC will be off air during the next mega-outage.
60
But?
Wouldn’t a national entity that is so impotent to the national interest have its own emergency diesel/gas emergency system?
What would become of us in an emergency when we have no guidance.
Come to think of it: maybe that’s where we are now.
Is there anybody steering the good ship Australia.
KK
10