Reading down the ABC page time and again I am thinking – “mention the Hazelwood minus 1600MW that Vic has next summer compared to last” – But no – Hazelwood is never mentioned. The author also never makes the link to NSW that just survived a blackout on 10 Feb this year. So next summer SA – Vic – NSW are 1600MW more likely to be in load shedding events compared to last summer – more than ever weather dependent. Mad.
True, Hazelwood has already been flushed down the ABC’s memory hole. However, the closure of Liddell (2.2Gw, the most powerful electricity generating station in Australia when it was completed in the 1970s) is still in the future, so it is no use expurgating it from the ABC’s prolefeed just yet. Instead we get:
“The market operator also found the proposed closure of the Liddell coal-fired power station in 2022 will materially increase the risk of blackouts in New South Wales.
For this reason, the Federal Government is now hoping to persuade the power station’s owner AGL to keep it open for longer.”
Note the revelatory nature of the market operator’s insight. Who among us mere mortals would otherwise have guessed that the closure of a colossal power station in a system already teetering on the verge of collapse might “materially increase the risk of blackouts”? Thank heavens for the all-seeing mystical clairvoyance of the market operator!
And praise be in equal measure to the infinite wisdom of the Federal Goverment, without whose beneficent guidance AGL might blithely close Liddell since it is no longer viable with wind able to undercut it whenever the wind is blowing, thus ruining the economics of continuous baseload power.
What with the genius of the market operator and the foresight of the Federal Government – along with the doubling of power prices since wind has been rammed into the mix – we may still hope to avoid blackouts over the next few summers – as long as aluminium smelters and their ilk shut down whenever the hard word is put on them, of course.
Yesterday early evening I saw a guy who sounded like an electrical engineer interviewed on the Abe but never saw a name. He spoke mostly sense but was asked about a proposal to build some you-beaut new coal fired station in Queensland. His replies suggested he was not across facts that the banana benders are the best supplied with coal fired power right now and most of every day are propping up NSW with exports.
He did say there would be transmission losses in using the power in NSW but did not seem to know that the existing interconnectors are already often fully utilised.
The CO2 horsesh*t has to stop.
No RET and no subsidies solves the issue .
The issue has been created by rank stupidity on an international scale in the western economies.
Check this out. No, it’s not April1. www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/alannah-mactiernan-released-findings-of-feasibility-study-that-shows-solar-power-was-next-export/news-story/c70fce9a804c631b2f8451e0ca1888b3
A power cord to Indonesia?
When I last looked there was a teensy widdle thing called the “Java Trench” where the southern plate is moving north at 70 to 100mm per year. What a great place to run your undersea power cable. Not to mention 50 other problems. The Minister has a history of being on the bottle, but this goes way beyond.
I saw this in The Australian; quite a big article.
Bill shock looms amid baseload power crisis 5 Sep 2017 David Crowe Political correspondent Canberra
@CroweDM
www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/bill-shock-looms-amid-baseload-power-crisis/n
ews-story/d64617bd271dd4b5d29cf371a93a185b
I got through the paywall googling the headline.
Yes, my sister’s bill arrived. Last year $600 this year $1200. And she was away on holiday for 4 weeks (power still on but with heating and HW shut down). Fortunately she can pay it but there are many in SA who will be in real trouble. I am still waiting for my bill.
There may be a renewed rush on solar and diesel generators in SA.