A “win” for predatory capitalism and government mis-interference
Liddell power station (foreground). Bayswater power station (rear).
Photo NSW DPI
Yesterday, for the last time the final turbine was switched off at Liddell Coal plant after 52 years of operation. The NSW government gave it away for free in 2014 — bundled like a McHappy Meal in with the sale of Bayswater Coal, valued at $0. Governments saw old coal as worthless, at least until 2017 when everyone saw the bloodbath when the Hazelwood coal plant suddenly closed and electricity prices suddenly rose 85%. Then they started to panic a little — even Malcolm Turnbull (our Renewables lovin’ PM) started openly pressuring AGL to sell Liddell so it could keep running until his pet project the Snowy Hydro 2.0 could start. Chinese owned Alinta turned up with $250 million dollars and was willing to put in a billion to repair the station and extend its life up to 2030. Despite that bonanza, AGL refused to take the money. It was determined to run it into the ground and shut it down instead. Now it’s determined to blow it up as well. The Demolition crew is already appointed for early next year.
David Archibald notes the insanity:
The experiment is to close the Liddell power station in NSW and see what happens. Liddell’s operator, AGL, has applied to the NSW Government to blow up the power station rather than leave it in a form that can be restarted. This is the military equivalent of burning your bridges behind you — the expedition succeeds or you die.
Liddell’s big value to AGL was not to generate electricity but to buy and sabotage “the competition”
Like so many parts of the Western economy, the predators buy up the cheaper end of the market in order to destroy them. AGL are the largest single generator in Australia. They own a portfolio of gas, hydro, wind and solar power, all of which will likely make higher profits with Liddell out of the way.
The year after Hazelwood closed AGL profits launched up from $539 million to $1,600 million. No wonder they didn’t want to sell.
Liddell was worth more dead than alive
It shows how screwed our electricity market truly is when billion-dollar assets producing cheap electricity are better off destroyed. Hello, AEMO our energy market operator — are you listening? And ultimately, Hello Anthony Albanese (the current PM). He commands this ship of crazy rules. The market is just doing “what makes sense” — and generators are not rewarded for making cheaper electricity as much as they are rewarded for destroying it.
AGL wouldn’t sell Liddell because NSW electricity might get cheaper. Oh the travesty?
As I wrote in 2018, the analysts at JP Morgan were frank about AGL’s strategy — let’s translate their investor-speak: if AGL sold it to Alinta and Liddell kept operating, it might “unfortunately” keep electricity prices lower which would hurt all of AGL’s other generators. We can’t have that…
Selling the power station to Alinta would hurt the wholesale prices that AGL can charge for energy from its other assets, the analysts said, while also helping a rival that is determined to eat into AGL’s market share. Operationally, Liddell and AGL’s nearby Bayswater power station are supplied with coal from a single coal loader and are subject to a number of contracts that would need to be unwound.
“Extending (Liddell) would likely have a negative impact on wholesale prices, and therefore the value of the rest of AGL’s generation assets; it would support the growth of a competitor in electricity retailing; and a separation from Bayswater would be complicated with the two assets intrinsically linked,” JPMorgan said. — Paul Garvey, The Australian.
Lower wholesale prices means “good news for customers” but “bad news for expensive retailers” — like owners of renewable generators.
How wiping out cheap generators makes all other generators richer
This, below, was the bid-stack of our national grid ten years ago. The AEMO (market operator) accepts every bid from the cheapest on the left up to the last bid needed to meet the current demand. All successful bidders are paid whatever the top successful bid was. By taking out the cheaper providers on the left, the whole stack shifts “left” and higher bids must be accepted to meet demand.
Liddell is the third “brown” supplier from the left. *( Not graphed: most diesel plants costing more than $350/MWh because they blow the scale away.)
The cross ownership of assets makes predatory capitalism possible
Once upon a time governments were meant to protect consumers from this sort of thing. If 20 separate companies colluded together to rig the market so they’d all be better off but at the consumers expense, we’d call that a cartel. But if one company buys 20 smaller companies then doing the same thing is just “managing the portfolio”. See how this works?
On the Australian national grid there are three large conglomerate players who make most of our electricity (and who also do retail sales of electricity). AGL is marked in blue, and the market dominance is obvious — singlehandedly generating around 40% of the electricity required in our two most populated states.
We wouldn’t be in this mess if each separate power plant was competing in the free market to make a profit for itself and there weren’t holy subsidies for intermittent green electrons too.
State of the energy market 2022 – Full report ( PDF 12.94 MB ) page 205.
Some are blaming the privatisation of an electricity generator — if you can call it that, when it was given away for free like a toxic frog. But the bigger crime was nationalizing our electricity market and issuing pagan commandments that we use our generators as giant weather changing machinery.
But thank your central banker for keeping interest rates artificially low for years so the rich could do the takeover and merger dance to remove the competition.
Last word to John McRobert:
With the closing of Liddell power station and other closures pending, we might as well cut back on our defence budget. Soon there will be nothing left to defend.
Despite the courageous words of our Energy Minister Chris Bowen that there will be no power shortages – he who believes that climate can be controlled by legislation – the words of an old, sad song resonate: “Hello darkness my old friend.”
Vale Liddell, and may those you have served so well never forget you.
Liddell Power Station. Photo by Webaware
ABBREVIATIONS
AEMO – Australian Energy Market Operator
It applies to Liddell too..
California is going to ban diesel trains by 2035 along with the ban on non electric cars.
But you have to be amazed at the admission that this will wreck the joint, in a good cause.
“The aim is to fight climate change — not through directly affecting global climate, on which California has little impact, but to foster the development of clean technology and encourage others to follow California’s example.”
Which is on a par with Monty Python’s Jaberwocky where an out of work cooper cleverly chops off his legs to get sympathy and suggests Dennis does the same.
390
Just how stupid is that??????????????
360
The only thing more stupid……….shut down 3 nuclear plants that are already built to do what?……fight climate change. Especially given the energy crisis Germany is facing.
360
You always get what the majority vote for. The majority then blame it on someone / something else. Probably racism or one of the other “ isms “ trending at that time.
260
Actually, the plot is lifted from the documentary “The Smartest Men In The Room”. Buy utilities critical to society…be it coal, gas, water or electricity. Artificially create scarcity and then make profit selling at the higher “emergency” rate.
70
Yep, the ‘crooked E’ had it down to a fine art, as long as you own two or more power stations you win, find an excuse to reduce rates or shut one down and make a motza with the other one.
40
[Off topic]AD
10
What are they going to replace diesel locos with.
60
No problem Ronin,
They’ll replace them with the same sort equipment as they’ve installed across the Nullarbor to recharge EVs. They’ll call them “diesel-electric locos”, and happily, will discover they already have some. What foresight they’ll claim.
Cheers
Dave B
90
20 mule teams.
http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/20_mule_team01/page9a.html
20
California imports about 30% of it’s energy, mostly fossil fuel sourced.
50
So we have come a long way from Climate Change to self harm. Self inflicted punishment. And successive governments have made it financially rewarding and inevitable. As have AGL’s largest shareholders.
And any pretext of a real problem, a scientific prediction has been lost. There is no Climate Change. CO2 is irrelevant. Climate CHange is now a UN created and promoted exclusively Western religion. And you can add racism, transgenderism, fascism.
Meanwhile the UN does nothing about the war in Ukraine while participants like Australia make tens, even hundreds of billions from selling fossil fuels at top prices, a real windfall. The concern for Ukraine and Ukranians is zero. But moral posturing on Climate Change has reached record levels.
400
And Australians are not allowed build a dam or open a new coal mine. We have a new environment minister who says it might harm the Great Barrier Reef, which is blooming at record levels. The total disconnect between fake science posturing and fact has reached record levels in Western society.
620
The UN even involved themselves with the proposal to raise the wall of the Warragamba Dam, which is now, surprise surprise, not going ahead.
130
There’s a fundamental rule about raising dam walls.
If it wasn’t part of the original design, it can’t be safe. Don’t do it.
100
Queensland however have mastered the art of reducing the height of dam walls. They want to reduce Paradise Dam volume by 42% and wall height by 5 metres. Now they can’t find the strength test documents. Australia is surely going backward under the socialists. BTW it is estimated the reduced availability of water to irrigators will cost $2.4 billion but that does not faze the bureaucratic class who get paid regardless.
130
Australians seemingly enjoy building and living in flood zones because they keep doing it. Again and again and again. And forget about trying to build a new dam or modify an existing one.
100
The G in AGL is Gas,
And it’s not the gas that comes from fracking or drilling. It is the gas that is given off when you heat coal in an oven, the other main product of this process being coke for steel making..
This gas has been in use for well over a century. It was piped through our bigger towns and cities until in our time pipelines were installed to bring natural gas from the gas fields to the cities, when utilities were modified to handle the different type of gas. Brisbane, I think, has been on natural gas piped from Roma for over a hundred years.
I don’t have personal experience with the gas trade, but it appeared to me that AGL may have had a long standing monopoly on the retail trade in gas in NSW. I often did wonder why was this allowed? How did it come about?
I could imagine that it might have come about through ownership of the pipes which deliver the gas to the end users, and that over the years “it just growed like Topsy”. But I don’t know.
Now this should be looked in to.
Brookfield???, having made a takeover offer for Origin Energy, is reported to have been seeking “assurances” in regard to Eraring. Again I haven’t seen the detail, but I have no fear of error when i say that this is the same situation as with Liddell today. In the medium term, the value of Origin shares will be higher with Eraring taken out than with it. As Jo says of Liddell, Eraring is worth more to Brookfield dead than alive. In the longer term it’s a case of “What? Me worry?”
The “assurances” that Brookfield is seeking would be that, given the system is constructed around unsound basic principles, there will be no change in government policies which removes those unsound parameters.
It’s time to look for other solutions. The Atlassian takeover of AGL is bizarre. An examination of current standing might find that AGL has powers that it should never have been allowed to have. Maybe a case could be built on that.
And, where to for the rest of us if Atlassian goes belly up?
80
“Brisbane, I think, has been on natural gas piped from Roma for over a hundred years.”
Ted, Brisbane had it own ‘town gas’ made by roasting coal, leaving coke. I was at school in the early ’60’s when gas was begun to be piped from Roma and Moonie to SEQ, so about 60 years.
60
Thanks Ronin. I didn’t realise it was as late as that.
My father had an uncle at Roma, before my time. Dad said he said:”There’s plenty of oil at Roma, but there’s nobody honest enough to find it”.
Australia’s first oil field was just up the road at Moonie.
70
I was at uni in 1963 and my mate and I thought we would be better off working on oil rigs. We went to the Department of Natural Resources ( or similar) in the upper floors of the old Queen Victoria bldg in George Street Sydney. We asked about such jobs and were told there were no oil wells in Australia. The Roma field was in the news. Government bureaucrats were hopeless then and have deteriorated with age.
100
Sorry Ronin. It was Oil piped from Roma in the 60s and they built a refinery at Bulwer Island to process it.
40
The media tells me it’s all very simple. High electricity prices are due to greedy oil/gas/coal companies, and Russia. (yes… sarcasm).
As they kill off more and more reliable/cheap energy sources, what new excuses will they invent to explain the crippling price of power and the ruined economy?
They’ve got “smart” with the cap on coal and gas prices, because now it won’t apply to smaller producers who don’t export, so these companies can still be blamed when householders are paying $12000 a year to keep their fridge and a couple of lights running.
210
I am amazed that there is always a Climate or Energy story planted in the Australian. This weeks along the lines of price caps and Renewables are starting to lower electricity prices. About as credible as wind power is the cheapest source of energy. Or that the Barrier Reef is dying. Who plants these incredible stories? And I mean incredible as unlikely to the true.
It’s hard to jack up electricity prices while coal power keeps them down.
200
The Australian used to be worth reading. Not anymore, it’s becoming nothing more than a green propaganda piece.
10
There will be no excuses. This is the headline from Friday’s press release from AEMO:
https://www.aemo.com.au/newsroom/media-release/renewables-drive-lower-prices-record-low-emissions
But even their ABC reporters are now wondering why their bills are going up while “prices” are being driven down.
90
Trump did it.
50
What will the journalist’s say when the electricity grid goes down … (crickets).
(Well, no one will read about it….)
50
We know exactly what they will say, because they are already saying it. The grid failure is because old coal plants are falling apart and unreliable, and the Russians invaded Ukraine and made coal so expensive.
If we want to change that we need to get the message out now before the prices rocket or the blackouts begin. They are already setting the scene so coal is the culprit and “unreliable” is anything other than renewables.
150
The media mirror world in action.
Western civilization as whole appears to have ‘mostly,’ lost the ability to determine fact from fiction.
10
It’s a ship of crazy rules ….a ship of fools …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQP1NsbeYVg.
90
Loosing coal reserve capacity in UK too, despite it being required last winter. Although I think the Drax plant will be converted to burn more trees, yay!
https://www.current-news.co.uk/edf-and-drax-confirm-closure-of-coal-plants-despite-call-for-contingency-contract-extension/
171
Making plans to demolish the Liddell plant is adding insult to injury. It is essentially showing that the Big Government/Big Business alliance knows that the proverbial is about to hit the fan with respect to reliable power, and they want to ensure there is no possibility of restarting it.
In Germany, they have just closed down nuclear power production, so that they can buy nuclear generated power from France. The hypocrisy of this has not dawned on them. At least they do no blow up their nuclear plants to show the depth of their faith in the new religion.
270
The gigantic, Bi-Party acts of “Privatization”.
Decades ago our local “health fund” was PrivatiZed under the guidance? of SOW and taken from the hands of the local workers.
Also our community based NRMA was PrivatiZed under the guidance of the same people.
Then we had to PrivatiZe the State electricity grid: this at the hands of the other Parti; The Libls.
Greed is the prime factor in all of this activity.
But let’s pretend it’s all for our own benefit and not the rulers and collectors of the LibLab UniParti.
It’s revolting.
170
While this is a much-repeated line, it is completely untrue in NSW (by 180o).
Carr, then NSW Premier, sold off the power stations and the mines that supplied the coal feeds in a bidding process that I was involved in, as were a number of my colleagues. The then Govt entity was called Elcom (Electricity Commission), then PowerCoal. I’ll add that I still have good, professional colleagues within the sold-off entities who are well aware of the following information and despaired of being able to effect any significant changes prior to the sales.
Carr forced the sales for several reasons:
1) his ideological bias against mining and coal mining in particular.
2) the power stations and associated mines were always pushing for capital. NSW Treasury were always pushing against that. This was a very deep, never-ending, running sore.
3) the clincher … typical of Govt “enterprise”, labour costs in the mines were completely out of Ministerial/Treasury control. The mines were regarded by the unions as employment centres, not production units. This was so entrenched that by Ministerial decree, PowerCoal was not permitted to bid for export contracts, since potential customers would publicly expose PowerCoal’s labour costs, and poor productivity, as part of their DD.
In the sales washup, the Carr Govt allowed the power stations to increase the cost of domestic power (as sugar on the table for bidders) and put limitations on labour shedding in the mines for several years following the sales as a sop to the unions.
I think it likely these facts will not expunge the myth that current power generation woes are caused by the Libs “privatising” the assets. That myth is just too seductive for some to relinquish.
150
Then there was the rushed through sale in the final days of the ALP government. What was that? Poles and wires? I can’t remember.
What I do remember was the impropriety.
80
Poles and wires were never sold in NSW.
They are leased out for 99 years with the NSW Govt retaining 49% ownership creating a hybrid/mixed ownership. So, we have AusGrid, Endeavour and Essential, the 3 distributors in NSW. Only Essential Energy remains as a full NSW Government corporation. AusGrid and Endeavour are mixed ownership.
Private consortium operates the poles and wires (the distributors) under regulation. That is, network prices can only change once a year (July) and approved by AER.
Whereas retailers are not regulated, they can add whatever markup on the distributor’s network charges. No retailers in NSW own or operate any of the 3 NSW distributors. Retailers may also own generation assets (gentailers) (AGL, Origin are examples).
Ditto for the state’s transmission grid. Retailers do not own or operate them. The transmission operators/owners also regulated (that is they must seek approval for price changes and only for once a year).
Poles and wires are a state issue, not federal. Each state has its own setup. Ranging from full private owned distributors to mixed to full government owned distributors.
Summary of the network ownership.
* 100 per cent privately owned electricity networks: Victoria, South Australia
* 100 per cent government owned electricity networks: Tasmania, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland
* In NSW, one electricity network is privately owned, two are 50.4 per cent privately owned and one is fully government owned. The Australian Capital Territory’s electricity network is a joint public and privately owned entity.
People need to get the facts right before rambling off with false information.
Leasing is a very different concept to a sale.
In addition, wholesale prices are not regulated, market conditions determine the price but there are caps for maximum and minimum prices that wholesale prices can reach.
31
“Poles and wires were never sold in NSW”.
And
The ports of Darwin and Newcastle were never “sold”, just leased for 99 years, which in reality amounts to the same thing as a sale.
Government “impropriety”?
Certainly not action that is pure as the driven snow.
40
No, it’s not. Government still receives money for the lease for 99 years and retains ownership of it after the lease is finished. And the kicker is that the lease is partial and the government still have 49% ownership, which allows the lessee to pay less money since they can’t control 100% of the asset being leased. So, it’s a hybrid lease. (part leasing with no option for 100% control). Don’t know why 99 years, should have been 30 or 50 years as with other infrastructure leases (e.g., motorways/tolls/tunnels).
Try doing that with a car. You will not get to own the car after the lease is finished. You return the car back to the company that arranged that lease. Want to own the car? You buy it for an agreed price after the lease is finished (not before or during the lease). Fail to pay the lease on time, it will be closed in and you will be out of pocket for not maintaining lease payments and be without a car.
Doesn’t matter what the time length is… a lease is contract.
Look at Hong Kong, it was leased to the British for 150 years and reverted back to China in 1997. Did China lose Hong Kong after the lease expired, it was never sold in the first place. That’s what lease is about, allowing someone else to control an asset for a set period of time for a fixed price, regardless of interest rates variability.
The reason why leases are done? Lease payments are 100% tax deductible for business purposes. As opposed to owning an asset which is depreciated over time or written off. Which is why most company cars are leased for maximum tax deductibility. Once the lease is over, that’s it. No fussing about with depreciation and asset write downs, etc. Simpler and easy to manage for most businesses.
10
Hey IanL
If the choice is overpaid miners or overpaid bankers guess which I choose.
Overpaid workers buy houses, overpaid bankers foreclose. Unscrupulous rich folk with endless avarice are creating markets and shortages with no concern whatsoever for the collateral damage.
They are enabled by the finest Governments money can buy.
40
Thanks for that Ian. I should have checked the details but relied on faulty ancient memory.
The basic issue is that both political partis are up to their necks in self indulgence and ignore the true needs of their constituents.
It’s good to get the inside details of the situation.
🙂
60
SOW.
Son – Of – Whitl
10
Meanwhile, in the land of our overlords:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/china-ramps-up-coal-power-despite-carbon-neutral-pledges
“Situational Ethics” in global politics? Who ‘da thunk it?
Even the Grauniad noticed.
150
India is also boosting coal-fired, also Pakistan (can’t afford renewables but wants cheaper electricity).
As for CO2 emission reductions that isn’t worth considering, 75% of human emissions come from countries that want no part of the UN/IPCC policies.
150
It just shows that the Chinese leadership may be authoritarian and uncaring of human rights but is pragmatic while lacking the stupid gene so prevalent in Western leadership.
20
AGL?
Australian Gas Lighting.
Gaslighting?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gaslighting
130
Accurately named, I think.
50
Just as wind power for electricity* is an idea of the National Socialists, so too is destroying your own vital infrastructure such as this. In the final days of the Socialists, there was the Nerobefehl or Nero Decree. We are in the final days of Australia and Western Civilisation in general.
* References: Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex (“…traces the roots of modern, human-hating, environmental nihilism back to Heinrich Himmler and his warped ‘blood and soil’ ideology.)
110
Just how bad does it have to get before somebody starts a new political party with centrist social policies (so as not to alienate anybody) and a fossil fuel mandate, and justifies it using science not financial selfishness?
OK, so GFANZ bets against Australia. Publicise the blackmail and let them do it. The gains in the enrgy market will be greater.
The good news is that such parties can be formed and become the largest in the country within a few months. Look at the Netherlands and th farms policy there.
210
Even though the demolition is scheduled to start next year, I wouldn’t be the least surprised if they sabotage the station immediately to render it impossible to restart so that there is no possibility of a “change of mind” in the unlikely event of common sense prevailing.
170
The Callide breakdown should be investigated with sabotage in mind.
60
In regards to the Callide “breakdown”, check out this sickening and cringeworthy piece of Green/Left propaganda.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/06/no-risk-of-blackouts-despite-breakdown-of-old-fashioned-power-station-queensland-minister-says
10
Mike Brunker is on the ball, anyway. More power to Mike!
Disingenuous takes a fair bit of ink. But it covers Mick de Brenni’s pronouncements. Times over.
I did not know of the recent closure at Callide. What I did read was that repair work on the major breakdown had stopped because the bill payer was broke.
I took the message from there that the construction contract was no longer viable.
Which reminded me of a bit of ALP history. ALP governments in NSW and Victoria funded the Cross City Tunnel and the Lane Cove Tunnel in Sydney, and at least one major roadwork in Melbourne by bankrupting the builders.
I repeat my call to investigate the possibility of sabotage with the Callide breakdowns.
40
This is not free enterprise or capitalism.
“Green” energy madness would not survive in a free market.
It is “crony capitalism”.
From Wikipedia:
120
Crony Capitalism goes by another name…Fascism!
90
Its not laissez-faire capitalism either, some kind of ugly hybrid and all those with Super are part of the equation.
‘Predatory capitalism refers to cultural acceptance of domination and exploitation as normal economic practice.’
30
Isn’t the collusion of Corporations (capitalism) and Government called Fascism?
40
Apparently the modern leftist loves Mussolini’s ideas.
20
Both sides of politics are complicit, we accept the status quo.
‘Predatory capitalism refers to cultural acceptance of domination and exploitation as normal economic practice. Examples include not only corporate and financial fraud and political corruption that goes unchallenged, but also the undermining of trade unions, the suppression of wages, the promulgation of economic slavery, and wealth creation through imposing debt on vulnerable entities.’ (ANU)
30
It is not getting better.
Despite Leftist lies, with honest accounting, there is no known exception to the rule:
The more wind, solar and Big Batteries you have, the more expensive the electricity.
It is that simple.
200
Jo,
There was a clear argument back in 2018, that AGL’s conduct of planning to blow up Liddell and reduce supply, rather than accept $250 million cash, was anti-competitive conduct and in breach of our competition laws.
And if it wasn’t, it should be, and therefore we should strength our competition laws.
AGL had a dominant market position, their conduct of rejecting $250 million and blowing it up, only makes sense because they could recoup the losses through an overall higher price.
Turnbull, Frydenburg & Morrison wanted to have nothing to with that argument.
If the Liberals had of shown any backbone, Liddell would still be open today.
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/liberal-backbencher-craig-kelly-has-told-sky-news-the-government-should-consider-changing-competition-laws-so-essential-services-like-liddell-power-plant-must-remain-open/video/03f3dc3764aafeec46ba2a322778613c
390
The libs don’t know what a backbone looks like.
90
Thanks, Craig. See #2.1.2 above.
30
Liberals (pretend conservatives) have had operations to remove their spines and testicles.
50
Most never had them anyway, They wormed, or were placed in the position by vested interests, and the Australian electorate were too busy with their leather balls, fishing rods, and tab tickets , to question ,who they were placing in the important positions. You only get what you vote for in the long run.
40
Does that make them transgender invertebrates ?
20
Invertebrate eunuchs.
30
Not necessary. Photios selects moderates to run in Liberal electorates. Moderates by definition believe in nothing except being elected hence no need for a backbone or cajones besides the latter could get in the way when sitting on the fence.
20
Oleaginous and cartilaginous?
10
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/craig-kelly-on-energy-policy/8901576
150
Not to worry /sarc. In Victoriastan, the Victorian Government is bringing back the State Electricity Commission (SEC). The government owned SEC will accelerate the energy transition, pushing more renewable energy into the system, driving down emissions and power bills, and generating thousands of jobs.
“To achieve Victoria’s renewable energy target of 95% by 2035, we need to be bolder and move faster.”
“The SEC will invest an initial $1 billion towards delivering 4.5 gigawatts of power through renewable energy and storage projects – the equivalent replacement capacity of coal-fired power station Loy Yang A, which is set to close in 2035.”
Loy Yang A currently delivers a reliable 1.6 GW, so presumably that 4.5 GW represents nameplate capacity.
Presumably the Vic Gov announcement of “an initial $1 billion” is like all Vic Gov project costs, unrealistic. The $2 billion, 122 turbine 756 MW Golden Plains project near Geelong will be the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere when 2nd stage 560 MW and 300 MW battery is added.
Victoria will be home to Australia’s first offshore wind farm and is leading the nation with its offshore wind energy targets of at least 2 gigawatts of capacity by 2032, 4 gigawatts by 2035 and 9 gigawatts by 2040.
Meanwhile the Vic Gov has more debt than NSW and Qld combined.
160
HANSARD : 21st May 2018
Mr CRAIG KELLY (Hughes) (16:06): It was disappointing, but not unexpected, that we heard today that AGL has rejected an offer for the Liddell Power Station.
It was only a few short years ago that AGL actually ascribed a zero value to Liddell in an investor presentation, no less.
Now they say to $250 million—a quarter of a billion dollars—cash up-front: ‘No, we don’t want it.’
The reason they don’t want it is because it is worth more to them to reject that.
Their bottom line is better with that power station closed than it is with it open.
That is why they’ve rejected that. It’s because they want to push up the wholesale price of electricity.
We have a job and a responsibility here as members of parliament. This is an essential service. If our competition laws are not adequate to act against such anticompetitive conduct, I say we should amend our competition laws.
This conduct by AGL will harm consumers, it will harm industry and it will harm all Australians.
We cannot sit by or stand for it.
As I speak now, Liddell Power Station is currently supplying 1,600 megawatts into the New South Wales grid. That is approximately 20 per cent.
When that pulls out and that is not available, prices will rise significantly for consumers.
We have to act against this. We cannot stand by and watch such anticompetitive conduct.
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansardr%2F8ba325d4-4d2d-4a31-91b3-a83165c5a782%2F0352;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F8ba325d4-4d2d-4a31-91b3-a83165c5a782%2F0256%22
410
Craig,
We know, but now what?
What Is Gaslighting and Signs It May Be Happening to You
[snip – email coming]
In the face of the fact the population has been Gaslit to the point where they have lost their collective memory of how their democracy worked and which parts had to be defended to preserve our way of life, the question is what are [SNIP — “we”] going to do?
My suggestion is for the Conservatives to bury the hatchet and unite behind some simple principles. The same principles the bully destroyed.
(1) Return representation to being a community service and not a career. Compensation not remuneration.
(2) Workers to be able to draw from their superannuation. The ‘run’ that will occur on these funds to be underwritten by the Swamp’s Future Fund
(3) Remove Deeming and Retrospectivity from the powers of the government. Government cannot take your money without proving you are in breech of a law that existed at that time.
(4) Magistrates to be appointed from Clerks of Court or JP’s with a long history of service.
(5) Public Service to restore a tradition of progression within that department.
(6) Paper Ballots with scrutineering at the polling station.
In my opinion you can sell these to a public. They will want to hit Politicians where they hurt, remove their credit card debt, simplify their relationship with Government and for the Public Servants actually enjoy going to work and feel they are doing something for the people they are employed to look after. And most importantly by paper ballots counted in school halls and community centres have some say in who represents them.
Very simply, Capture the Reset Narrative. Re-badge it as the Aussie Reset and do not be distracted from restoring the foundations for free people with an ability to use there own capital to build a better community around them. The very foundations you watched be turned off.
50
Craig, brilliant. Thanks so much for what you do. I don’t know if you got that from my April 2018 post on Liddell, but it’s good to know someone at least was demanding answers at the highest level. Most Australians would be furious if they had any idea.
People can see the investor presentation and $0 valuation at that old post.
80
I’ve had a look at the dates – I was arguing potential breach of Competition Laws at least in March 2018 – maybe earlier. The Australian articles were written after I raised the issue.
I recall writing to Rod Simms – head of the ACCC – and had a meeting with him arguing with him for hours that they had the power to run a case against AGL
Limiting supply if a classic anti-competitive trick if you dominate a market.
– AGL had a substantial degree of market power in the market for electricity supply in NSW, through ownership of Liddell and Bayswater – incompetent fools in NSW government should have never sold both to one company.
AGL were engaging in any-competitive conduct (rejecting $250 million offer for Liddell and closing it down) but ACCC didn’t want to know.
It was seen as a ‘political hot potato” – Turnbull didn’t want to been seen fighting to keep a coal plant open.
And the rest of the cabinet were so thick, they didn’t even understand the ‘Misuse of Market Power’ competition law argument. And even if they did, they were too gutless to have the fight.
And here we are today – 1st day of Liddell closure and already prices are up 50% compare to last 7 days average.
AGL are making higher sales $ in NSW AFTER Liddell closed. They knew this happen – but we had a weak & cowardly government.
And now it’s all too late. We are stuffed.
90
Craig, thanks so much for your dedication on this. The competition law aspect is so important and not something I wrote about.
And this is the clincher, isn;t it? — even when the law or the constitution is on our side, if it isn’t pursued it’s worse than no law at all. The rules get turned against the good people but ignored against the corrupt.
So who’s failing was it that it was not pursued. The ACCC? Parliament? The media? The PM? Someone let Australian’s down…
50
“And the rest of the cabinet were so thick,”
That sums up what is wrong with this country.
20
HANSARD : 21st May 2018
[Accidental duplicate of Craig’s excellent remarks in Parliament – J]
80
This is what happens when the security of the Citizenry and the States, and the security of the Nation is centralized in a politically compromised mess of incompetence, graft, and corruption.
Electrical power ought be operated as a State controlled Public Utility for the benefit of the populace, not as a cartel controlled enterprise enabled by a compromised government.
This situation is going to burden and/or destroy families, industries, and State/National security, all for the sake of corporate profits.
Australia has been legislated into energy poverty and weakness, rather than for benefit of Australians.
Going to be a harsh winter, you can bank on that. For decades.
130
The problem is that all governments at both state and federal level are fully on board with this unreliables scam. So it wouldn’t really matter if the states owned the utilities. If anything, it might have hastened the destruction of coal plants.
40
Correction. Queensland owns all the power stations in the state.
It might look like a private corporation owning them, because they are all run as Q.U.N.G.O.S. A good way to reward mates, by employing them to run them.
40
Correct.
I forgot about Qld.
Must be getting old! Qld is where I live as well!
Pluckaduck is well on the way to unreliables nirvana in that state as well though.
30
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…
30
I agree Lance, but believe that when the public finally understands that our energy problems are self-made by stupid governments, not by underlying physical processes such as climate change, that we will get proper action to restored reliable cheap energy for everyone. This may take a few years of further energy undersupply resulting in blackouts like what South Africa is experiencing for people to get the message, whilst China etc continue to build more coal generation to keep their growth online, ignoring the West’s Net Zero stupidity.
The underlying problem is the unedifying “save the planet’ UN inspired so called climate emergency, targeting fossil fuel power generation to reduce emissions of the plant-saving CO2, in the mistaken belief it is causing dangerous global warming. Nothing in science could be further from the truth, as the years pass without any evidence of this emergency, except what is predicted by patently unreliable computer models. In fact, satellite temperature data shows warming has slowed this century as we start cooling towards the next Grand Solar Minima by 2032. We are tired of the continuous howling of the climate wolves, show us the evidence for your cult beliefs or just shut up!
Our current governments are entirely wrong with their climate/ energy policies, so as the public finally catches on to this fake climate emergency, we will see our leaders recanting of their economy-devastating policies and more realistic solutions to our energy needs. Us sceptics of the climate orthodoxy have had a long battle opposing the AGW theory, but eventually science truth will win out against irrational politically motivated ideology.
20
The big news in Australia today is that:
This comes directly from AEMO:
https://www.aemo.com.au/newsroom/media-release/renewables-drive-lower-prices-record-low-emissions
But even their ABC reporters are observant enough to recognise that their electricity bills are not coming down. The gap between wholesale and retail price continues to widen. This is what has to be highlighted.
The AEMO press release goes on:
Those of us who own a roof can reduce our electricity bills and continue to disproportionately spread the cost to those who do not own a roof. Every MWh from a “renewable” source currently garners $66 transfer from the poor to not so poor. This is clearly immoral and something Howard never anticipated when he introduced the RET.
So subsidies are the enemy of the people and need to be attacked. If wholesale price was not coming down when “renewable” generators are guaranteed higher price than coal production cost 10 years ago then there would be a serious problem.
IT IS TIME TO END ALL SUBSIDIES AND LET “RENEWABLES” STAND ON THEIR OWN.
190
As industrial night follows energy policy day, Brickworks Closes West Australia Branch, Cites Energy Costs and Planning Delays.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/04/28/brickworks-closes-west-australia-branch-cites-energy-costs-and-planning-delays/
100
The Litigator has been appointed and the assets are being preserved for a potential future owner.
30
That’s a worry, because most houses in Perth are built with double-brick walls, as insulation against the summer heat. This has been possible because of the low costs of bricks.
40
Question for warmists – which country is the largest CO2 emitter (what you call “carbon” (sic))?
China 30.9%
United States 13.5%
India 7.3%
Russia 4.7%
Japan 2.9%
Iran 2%
Germany 1.8%
Saudi Arabia 1.8%
Indonesia 1.7%
South Korea 1.7%
Canada 1.5%
Brazil 1.3%
Turkey 1.2%
South Africa 1.2%
Mexico 1.1%
Australia 1.1%
United Kingdom 0.9%
Italy 0.9%
Ref: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271748/the-largest-emitters-of-co2-in-the-world/
Remind me again why Australia, the Unitred States and the West generally have to, and are, destroying their economies over this whioe China is building coal power stations at the rate of two per week with no restrictions whatsoever.
Ref: https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/china-permits-two-new-coal-power-plants-per-week-in-2022/
180
Every one of these “emitters” represents only 3.4% of TOTAL CO2 emissions. This little aspect is never mentioned by government, UN or media. Australian emissions is the equivalent of the sound of one hand clapping in a full MCG!
50
They generate the extra CO2 in making steel and building windmills which are needed to reduce CO2. And it keeps all the CO2 in China which is generous and caring.
40
When the Left say “green” energy (sic) will “generate thousands of jobs” that is surely an admission of just how inefficient and labour-intensive intermittent electricity production is.
That is, in addition to other reasons for its intrinsic high cost and extremely poor reliability requiring massive expensive back up systems (batteries in future, coal power stations on “spinning reserve” now).
The human resources wasted on labour-intensive green energy (sic) projects would be better employed doing something useful like projects to drought-proof and flood-proof Australia.
100
I think all this “renewables” madness would be over by now, worldwide, had there not been a coup d’état against President Trump.
I guess that was one of the reasons for the coup…
230
Don’t overlook the proven solution to heating and lighting loss due to power black outs.
YES!! Its the Chris Bowen BBQ car service. As a result of the success of the Adelaide launch in May 2022 Chris has now taken the offering nationwide with Perth currently enjoying their own heat and light show. In Adelaide “Fire cause investigators have determined the blaze was sparked by an electrical fault from one of the vehicles” while we await the outcome of investigations regarding the Perth one.
Disclaimer – There is no suggestion that Chris has shares in Pickles car yards he is too busy legislating to make every home a Chris Bowen BBQ car site.
70
Burning battery operated vehicles is a great way to heat up your ration of insects.
60
Interesting. Of course last night’s TV news didn’t mention they were EVs on the stack. Were they EVs?
10
Remember, Elites, including politicians, senior public serpents and crony capitalists, don’t feel the pain of electricity bills. I’d be willing to bet they don’t even know how much they pay. They are not faced with the choice of many regular people, especially in Europe, but soon to become more common in Australia, heat or eat.
100
Blowing up coal fired power stations is like putting a tourniquet around your neck to stop a nose bleed.
Is there a silver lining to all this? Should I invest all my spare cash into AGL shares?
100
By all means invest – just be sure to bail out before the day of reckoning arrives.
20
Thanks Jo for giving us the chance to try and keep up with the lunacy of chasing sunbeams and breezes and thanks for the comments so far from our realistic bloggers.
BTW the global total energy increase since Dr Hansen’s DC speech in 1988 has been about 70.6% (up to 2021).
Have a look at OWI Data graph to try and understand the problems ahead for TOXIC, UNRELIABLE renewables and just for the electricity sector.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitution
50
In a way, this is good because it will serve to further accelerate Australia’s energy crisis, which will in turn lead to the installation of even more wind, solar and Big Batteries, which will further drive up costs UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THE IGNORANT MASSES WAKE UP AND DEMAND A RETURN TO ENERGY SANITY. Meanwhile, let them have the governments they voted for and deserve. It’s too bad the thinking community also has to suffer.
140
H.L. Mencken had a few relevant thoughts on this situation:
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”
“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”
100
The big news in Australia today is:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/crucial-trend-behind-power-price-020000418.html
But the ABC reporters must be wondering why their electricity bills are still going up because they now talk about retail price and why bills are going up. It is a headline on a podcast that I could not bear to listen to.
If you did not know why your bill is still going up (unless you make your own), then you need to realise that transmission assets are increasingly poorly utilised so there needs to be a lot more of them – they are not free. Then there is the government sanctioned theft now running at $66/MWh that gets added to every MWh of “renewable” generation and charged at retail level.
70
“NEM wholesale prices for the March quarter tumbled to an average $83 per megawatt hour, down 10.5 per cent from the December quarter and 62 per cent from September.”
Wholesale prices go down, retail prices go up, 20% in my case, is it to pay for clearing rainforest and all those access roads for windmill farms and the associated grid connections.
70
Excellent work Jo Nova
60
If you have the so called ‘smart meters’ over there in Australia it would be a good idea to set all those applauding this stupidity to follow the ‘renewable’ power production and see how loud they squeal on a windless night, You might get a better power production.
60
Various Australian states have smart meters … and dumb voters.
120
You mention the big three power companies, AGL Energy, Origin Energy and Energy Australia.
My understanding is that at least one of these is Chinese owned, perhaps more than one. I’ve been told that originally a Singapore company owned one of then, but sold it to a Malaysian company that later sold it to Chinese interests.
Put your energy infrastructure in the hands of a foreign company is dumb at any time and even worse when it’s China.
130
Actually John, it might be the answer! Ask the Chinese to come and build a coal-fired power station in a block of land set apart from our usual industrial laws- they bring in all the resources and the people and build it with bamboo scaffolding.
We would see how fast you can build a power station and what it really costs when the experts do it, a fraction of the time and money it would take to have locals do it. We could be back on real electricity within a couple of years, not the $3billion & 8years that Australia would take!
60
But Australia, along with all western nations, are transitioning away from coal fired power stations using their own coal resources.
That can only happen if the energy extractors and supporting infrastructure are made in China. Inevitably China will use mostly Chinese sourced coal to build the entire global electrical infrastructure. All the stuff needed to achieve NetZero is ultimately a net energy sink so China has to burn more coal than is currently burnt to keep the lights on globally. Or they could just let the lights go out by not supplying the stuff needed.
10
The thing with Liddell closing is it probably won’t make much difference immediately, so the muppets will cheer and say ‘see we told you so’, but somewhere down the track on a windless wet day, a trip here, a failure there and it will be chaos.
When you least expect it, expect it.
101
Let’s hope so. People won’t wake up otherwise.
60
Origin Energy is to be taken over by Brookfield and EIG, Canadian and US respectively,in an $18.4B deal, so stand by for accelerated coal closures.
20
Who owns AGL?
The page won’t let me copy and paste from my phone but you can see at the following link among the shareholders are Galipea Partnership (Mike Cannon-Brookes), Macquarie Bank, Vanguard, Franklin Templeton, BlackRock and JP Morgan.
They are all fully woke companies and all make money from subsidy harvesting.
https://m.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/AGL-ENERGY-LTD-6499237/company/
100
What a pity that we do not seem to have laws that constrain monopolistic capitalism, or outlaw conspiracies to manipulate prices for vital services such as electric supplies. The current idea of fining all shareholders for the misdeeds of amoral/avaricious executives/directors misses the target. The companies operate at the pleasure of the citizenry, and the groups mentioned as large shareholders, select the board-they also effectively endorse what is happening, though in this time of climate madness, the stupidity is unending, and pervasive.
During Stalinist times in the USSR, the perpetrators of such idiocy would be labelled as “wreckers”-and that is what this clique is intending to do to the lives of many Australians. I used to think that the punishments Stalins’ “courts” meted out were harsh, but maybe not. Heaven help Australia__PLEASE!!
21
It is government regulations that mostly encourage such practices.
Under free enterprise the green energy scam wouldn’t exist or would only exist if certain consumers were prepared to pay full price for unreliables whilst others could buy coal, gas or nuclear at one third the price.
70
In the present, companies collude to rig the government and the government rigs the market so collectivist entities will be better off at the expense of consumers. We call that state corporatism.
State corporatism, where businesses monopolies manipulate customers, corrupt governments, debauch laws, and where government represents corporate interest and not electors.
Corporatism has been a source of the most harmful problems in modern societies. It has a very destructive history. It destroys trust.
40
Flinders Island , probably the best of the remote unreliables setups, is presently surviving on 65% diesel input.
70
Just looked on the AEMO site;
Black Coal 47%
Brown Coal 21%
Gas 6%
So 74% fossil fuel !!
So what’s going on ?!
20
Why would anyone invade Australia when we are blowing up our infrastructure ourselves?
50
I have been watching the market notices on the AEMO dashboard. The number of lack of reserve notices for NSW have skyrocketed in the past couple of days:
https://www.aemo.com.au/market-notices
So far you see that there is a market response on the generating side but it guarantees the wholesale price will increase because the market is warned that there is a pending crunch.
The situation may sort itself out as they get experience operating without Liddell but something to watch because it is a predictor of potential generation shortfall and system instability.
The forecast price was at $14,000 limit on the last three days before the market response. LOR notice was posted.
I am reminded of the work my Electrical Engineering school did for lightning research for the Queensland power grid. Lightning was a real threat to the grid and was a frequent cause of outage when I was growing up in Brisbane. Work to reduce the impact of lightning was fruitful and the likelihood of losing power due to storms was reduced.
We have now come full circle and have a huge exposure to weather as that is an ever increasing source of power generation. In the middle of May NSW can expect widespread cloud and low winds – fun times.
Last May, Sydney had three consecutive days with 1.3kWh/m^2 of sunlight (a good day in May is 3.8kWh/m^2) and I expect there was little wind associated with the rain. Will be interesting to see if gas plants are needed through the middle of the day next month.
80
Serious question:
I wonder how many people actually understand that we are are “transitioning” to a weather-dependent electricity system.
There is a VERY GOOD reason that the world abandoned weather-dependent power sources like sails for ships and windmills for milling grain and pumps etc. the moment a reliable, practical and affordable steam engine was developed.
40
You spoke too soon. It’s midday as I type, cloudy and no wind and we have gas plants running in 4 states. Wind output is only 560MW across the NEM, exposing the serious issue of RE.
50
Yes but not much and is dropping off as the rooftops kick in. Today is a low demand day so should not be an issue.
Something very strange in SA because price went down to MINUS $611/MWh. Wind is being curtailed; plenty of sun. So there may be a line problem somewhere.
10
In NSW there was gas and hydro running during the midday period. With Liddell closed I’m expecting increased hydro usage outside of peak demand periods until xmas, when the dams become low and the situation starts to unravel. I’m also expecting an issue in June when solar dips to a minimum and we have calm cold evenings with high demand and insufficient supply. No doubt Tomago will be forced to shut down to avoid unplanned load shedding.
60
Enemy at The Gates.
Energy Australia’s owners.
In 2005, TXU Corp sold all its Australian assets to Singapore Power, which retained the distribution businesses (electricity and natural gas distribution networks) in Victoria, and onsold the retail and generation businesses to the Hong Kong-based CLP Group, which also owned the Yallourn Power Station, in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. In Australia, CLP traded as TRUenergy, and became the fifth largest energy retailer in Australia.[2] In 2011, TRUenergy acquired from the New South Wales Government the state’s electricity retail business and trade name of EnergyAustralia. Following the sale of the government’s electricity retail assets, the government changed the name of the remainder of the government enterprise to Ausgrid, and in 2012 TRUenergy changed its name to EnergyAustralia.[1]
CLP being China Light and Power, based in Hong Kong, now fully Chinese owned.
60
Do you blame predatory capitalism or the market’s regulatory framework ?.
I lean towards the latter in this case, because capitalism will always be predatory if the rules allow, which is why we have rules in place to prevent monopolies, for example. In our version of the free energy market, electricity only needs to be provided in 5 minute bids and RE always has priority over FF. This has lead to a huge oversupply of non-dispatchable energy at midday, causing negative wholesale prices. However, the reverse occurs in the evening when the sun sets, where we need to survive on ever diminishing dispatchable coal to keep the grid running during peak demand. The less coal in the system means the bigger the evening supply shortfall and the higher the wholesale price, which is a boon for energy suppliers. To overcome this issue, all we need to do is change the minimum bid period from 5 minutes to 4 hours, with large fines for failure to deliver and problem solved. Thus the real question here is why did we have this absurd 5 minute bid inserted into the regulatory framework in the first place ?. Is this really a case of a predatory regulatory framework, rather than predatory capitalism ?.
70
I’m sure I saw somewhere that to be a registered bidder of electricity to the grid, certain requirements had to be met, frequency stability for one, so how do wind and solar get straight on to the grid when they can’t supply a stable frequency(FF has to provide that for them), and if the wind drops or clouds or rain shade the panels, output drops, not good enough for a stable grid.
They should have been required to stabilise their output before offering it for sale, so major rules have been bent to allow this idiocy to exist.
40
It’s easy to provide a stable 5 minute bid using batteries, but try that for 4 hours… 🙂
20
What’s behind predatory capitalism? Greed. It’s the same thing behind predatory socialism.
Capitalism isn’t the problem. Greed is the problem. It’s a consciousness shift of fundamental understanding that needs to happen to us as individual human beings to move us forward. Where’s it going to come from?
10
Notice the propaganda language below, e.g.
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/liddell-power-station-closing-what-does-that-mean-for-energy-supply/
My comment: Fifty years is not especially old for a proper power station, but it is more than three times the age that wind plant makes it to.
..
My comment: Any unreliability is due to deliberate lack of maintenance as it was being driven into the ground so it could be replaced with a subdidy-harvesting operation.
..
They make the false comparison that random and expensive wind and solar are genuine replacements for proper power stations with constant, reliable output.
..
As per above, it wasn’t being maintained properly and deliberately driven into the ground.
..
All due to lack of maintenance.
..
Solar and wind are not replacement for proper power plants.
70
At 12 noon today in NSW wind was providing about 1% of demand, according to the AEMO graph. Nationally less than 2-3%. And Bowen wants to triple it.
That should fix the supply issues! I wonder if he ever looks at the AEMO web page?
40
I would be willing to bet, NO!
30
Don’t complain about Bowen and his mates …they are putting in extraordinary efforts to both increase the wind and heat it simultaneously……sensational stuff really….
20
Do you suppose that he would have a clue as to its meaning if he did?
20
While cheap electricity from Leddell power station comes to an end, here is an example of just one of the many hundreds of solar farms needed across Australia to replace coal power generators.
The proposed King Valley Meadow Creek solar farm will consist of approx. 475,000 solar panels, 50 lithium ion batteries each the size of a 40-foot container. Building cost is estimated at $750 million dollars. Built on premium food producing land.
Local King Valley farmers living near the proposed solar farm in North East Victoria question they can afford or even obtain $750 million dollars of liability insurance.
Locals say; “if this power plant burns, the toxic waste will be washed into the King River, damaging ecosystems and poisoning Wangaratta’s domestic water.”
Recently there was mainstream media horror about warehouses full of stored plastic, but 50 shipping size containers full of toxic lithium at each solar farm are OK?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtseUgPt9u8&t=4s
50
There was a time ( maybe in a galaxy far far away ) when politicians and public servants first responsibility was to consider things such as freedom of speech, human rights and cheap energy. Because those attributes were the hallmark of a modern enterprising free country. Sadly no more, whether it’s Liberal National Party or the Labor/Greens they are basically on the same ticket. The destruction of our ever reliable, cheap energy providing grid can be shared between both sides of politics. My thoughts are allied with other contributors to this subject today. We need a catastrophic power blackout to at least Sydney and Melbourne simultaneously and we need it very quickly.
30
The west continues to commit societal suicide.
DC is utterly corrupt.
It can’t be reformed.
ACT is equally corrupt.
Both deserve execution for treason to their People.
NIFO.
https://youtu.be/aCbfMkh940Q
20
Madame G cannot be mentioned in respect to solutions.
20
mmmmm a nice quiet Sunday night. 1.8GW being pumped into NSW from North (mostly) and South. QLD>NSW main interconnector maxed out, TAS>VIC interconnector maxed out. and SA importing 350MW from VIC. Oddly SA still the most expensive , they must not get the bulk discount NSW gets 🙂
20
[…] Jo Nova Blog […]
10