The AEMO price blowouts that flowed from the 9 May 2016 shutdown of South Australian coal fired power stations make it imperative that Australia take stock of where we are on our +decade long transformation of our electricity grids. South Australia with the largest proportion of wind power in Australia is so obviously dependent on increasing coal based power imports from Victoria that we must call a halt to further degrading our vital power grids. Check NemWatch
There must be no more reckless expansion of wind power before we can lay out in public a clear engineering certified and costed pathway to 24/7 lower carbon power.
A Royal Commission into the entire MRET Scheme disaster would be hugely beneficial. Prev blogs on post May AEMO price explosion – Australian electricity bills set to soar
I’m glad WA isn’t on the so called National Grid.
Not that it would be feasible to connect it.
Perhaps Mr Frydenberg could benefit from some intense lobbying before Tony Jones sets him up for an assasination.
I can already see a panel stacked with Ove Hough Guildberg , Bob Brown &/or Tim Flannery………..
At least if he is put in the ABC stocks he should be able to logically & clinically argue his way out or at least give as good as he gets.
Source Document: www.aemo.com.au/Electricity/Planning/South-Australian-Advisory-Functions/~/media/Files/Electricity/Planning/Reports/SAER/2015/2015_SAER.ashx
(South Australian Electricity Report – 2015 – pdf document of 45 pages)
It’s always amazing how they can hide the truth in plain sight, and just by having an understanding of where to look and then how to extrapolate the facts out from that enables us to see what is really being said with a document like this.
I’d just like to point out some things with respect to ….. perspective.
When you think of a whole State, the natural thing is to think on a large scale, so here I would like to show you a couple of things.
South Australia consumed 12,468GWH of power in the last year. It seems a lot, but in fact, it’s barely 6% of the overall total East of the WA border, so, if WA was added in, that figure would drop closer to 4% or lower, but the data is just for that coverage area East of the border, so even at 6%, it’s not very much.
South Australia takes pride in how much its Wind Power provides, at close to 34% of its total power generation, so when that is then compared to the Australian total, it’s 34% of 6%, or around 2% of the total.
Keep in mind also that with the Heywood Interconnector in play, which South Australia says can be used both ways, taking power from Victoria, and also delivering excess wind power back to Victoria.
The power provided TO S.A. via that Interconnector amounts to 17% of the State’s consumption, so in fact, Victoria is, in a pretty substantial manner, propping up S.A.
The amount fed back the other way (excess wind power) is less than a quarter of the power they TAKE from Victoria, and they don’t say when that occurs, as during Peak periods S.A. requires virtually ALL the wind power they can generate, and that excess is usually at periods of lowest demand in S.A. usually, from around 10PM until 7AM, when everybody is in the main neatly tucked up in bed, and Victoria would have little use for that excess anyway, as they too are in bed, and this period of time is traditionally the highest generation for Wind Power anyway.
17% of the State’s power comes from Victoria, so if Victoria was to close Hazelwood, as is the thought bubble, then Victoria will be stressed themselves, let alone having to supply S.A. during the Peak period, which is dead set guarantee when all that 17% of power is required in S.A.
So, even though S.A. is a State, it is in reality barely a blip in the Australian total.
I mentioned that S.A. consumes just on 12,500GWH of power a year.
For some further perspective, the total yearly output of Bayswater power plant is 17,500GWH a year, so effectively, S.A. could be totally supplied by Bayswater alone with only three of Bayswater’s four units, and power costs would be stable at around a tiny fraction of what they are now.
Do we seriously think that the public will ever be told things like this. Those in positions of political power will run and hide and do everything they can to avoid any sort of Inquiry.
We can’t have the people knowing the truth now ….. can we?
Tony.
Here is a pertinent article from the Adelaide Advertiser a few days ago.
Baseload power instability: Why BHP’s SA power bill hit $2.5m — in a day
www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/baseload-power-instability-why-bhps-sa-power-bill-hit-25m–in-a-day/news-story/8128f3511f701ff233f83b1b4e4ac94e
Does anybody know for sure if large industrial consumers are paying these AEMO RR Prices?
From the report cited by TonyfromOz:
“The key conclusion to date is that the South Australian power system can operate securely and reliably with a high percentage of wind and rooftop PV generation as long as the Heywood Interconnector is operational or sufficient synchronous generation is on-line in South Australia.”
Translation: we believe we can rely on a system with lots of wind and solar power as long it also has enough conventional power for us to get by without any wind or solar.
I thought this comment fitted better here –
Stephen
August 1, 2016 at 4:22 pm Edit
Hello Warwick and Douglas
The AEMO has recently changed its web page.
The new data makes me uncomfortable
at present 4:15 PM 1st Aug
NSW $42.04 a MWh
QLD $42.65
VIC $40.74
SA $38.44
TAS $38.44
WA $40.22
Is it not true the VIC Latrobe Valley Brown Coal is the cheapest Electric Power in Aust at around $45 a MWh
It follows all these companies are making a loss ??
I smell a rat.
any ideas.
Hi Warwick
AEMO are being a bit sneaky
each state graph NSW VIC QLD SA etc
use a different scale on the graph,
so it is harder to get a sense of a price comparison.
Not Kosher in my opinion
we should not see apples and oranges but same same
Statistical “tricks” to befuddle the unwary are not cool
I assume the varying scales are to accomodate price spikes which particularly in the case of SA can soar into the thousands of $ per MWhr. Right now ~7.50am East Nemwatch shows national wind is only ~900MW – SA wind is a paltry 245MW and to meet demand that AEMO say is 1,684MW – Nemwatch shows Gas 1,077, Liquid 21, Wind 245, = total 1,343MW which suggest they must be importing at least 341MW from Vic. SA price at AEMO is $115MWhr with morning peak near.