Posted on 06/17/2022 5:04:18 AM PDT by blam
Australia’s energy minister asked Sydney and the New South Wales (eastern part of the country) residents to turn off lights and energy-intensive appliances in the evening to prevent power blackouts due to an ongoing energy crunch, The Independent reports.
The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, asked residents in a televised address to turn off energy-intensive devices between “6 to 8 [pm]” to mitigate risks of a spike in power during peak hours. He pointed to several offline coal-fired plants because of maintenance and unexpected issues.
Reuters notes that 65% of eastern Australia’s power is generated by coal, but more than a quarter of that capacity is offline.
Wholesale electricity prices have soared and on Monday exceeded the capped price of A$300 per megawatt-hour. Above A$300, coal power generation plants lost money and forced some operators to shutter power generation units, thus removing energy capacity off the grid and sending prices even higher. The rise of power prices began when coal prices jumped following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bowen snapped at a journalist when asked if more coal power is the answer the energy crunch.
Chris Bowen isn’t having any of Uhlmann’s ‘wind doesn’t always blow’ rhetoric.
“the rain doesn’t always fall either, but we manage to store the water – we can store the renewable energy if we have the investment”#auspol pic.twitter.com/LjJkEr3zJy
— Squizz (@SquizzSTK) June 16, 2022
“The situation in recent days has posed challenges to the entire energy industry, and suspending the market would simplify operations during the significant outages across the energy supply chain,” Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chief executive Daniel Westerman said in a statement.
“It was understandable generators had held back supply in light of the price caps along with unplanned outages and supply challenges with coal and gas, but having to direct generators to provide supply had made it impossible to maintain normal market operations,” Westerman said.
Australia’s dysfunctional power grid hasn’t stopped at coal. In the last three weeks, declining solar output and periods of low wind have created power generation challenges, which have placed a heavier burden on fossil fuel generators.
Also, the coldest start to a winter season in decades is boosting heating demand and worsening the problem.
Australia better find a way to bring more coal power plants online or risk widespread blackouts amid high demand because of the winter chill.
The rise of power prices began when coal prices jumped following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
—
Australia is, or was, a net exporter of coal. of course with enough government intervention, I’m sure they can destroy any energy self-sufficiency.
Australia needs to have some Men At Work building running coal plants Down Under.
Coming to an area near you. We have millions of acres of solar panels being build in northern Florida. No wind power that I can see. We can’t afford to go completely solar, not enough to do much good. Thinking about it though.
Watermelons are working overtime.
That makes sense. Disconnect yourself from power to avert a blackout.
So, black yourself out to avoid a blackout.
Got it.
L
Natural gas plants, however, are somewhat scalable. You can turn them up or down as needed, but even that assumes you handle the change in pressure in the gas lines (the problem Texas had when their natural gas lines "froze"). It's analogous to having a propane tank for long-term storage and never filling it up. If it's pressured to max capacity the contents will liquify (in propane and natural gas jargon it's called "freezing"). So the solution is to never fill your tank more than, say 70%. Gas lines have the same problem if you all of a sudden increase the pressure in them (like Texas was doing when their green power was failing them and they tried to compensate with more natural gas -- they did it too much at once).
The good thing about solar, however, is you can do it yourself. So even though my solar power isn't as efficient or dependable as natural gas or coal or oil, the fact of the matter is I have some control of it and the government has no control of it.
My home solar system wouldn't be attractive to me at all if it wasn't for the fact that Dims screw up everything they touch -- including dependable energy. That's why I'm upgrading my solar from doing 58.6% of all of my power used last year, to 85% to 95%. If you're in a good situation for solar (as you are in northern Florida and I am in Alabama) and you own your home and plan to be there for at least 10 years to make up the cost, it's worth considering. But I warn you, to make it effective it requires a lot of detailed analysis of your regular power usage, times of day you tend to use the most power, spec it out per month, determine average peak solar hours per day per month in your area, how often your extreme hot days are sunny (as well as cold days in the winter, particularly if you're going all-electric like I did), and do as much insulation and energy saving as you can without changing your lifestyle. (i.e. I replaced my A/C and gas furnace with a variable speed heat pump that also reduces humidity in my house -- so now my house is both cooler and less humid all while drawing much less power than before. That helps me win part of the power battle by needing less power to begin with even while making my life more comfortable.).
The reckless stupidity of the Left is only excelled by their ability to sell it to the idiot masses.
Monday exceeded the capped price of A$300 per megawatt-hour
______
That’s the problem. They have some mandated maximum price there.
When the real price gets above the maximum they can charge, they shut down, regardless of demand!
Kind of catch 22.
When the real price gets above the maximum they can charge, they shut down, regardless of demand!
__________
This happens every time they mandated maximum prices.
For like last thousand years!
Price control = shortages.
Would they ever learn?
Thanks for the info and I will look forther into this.
The entire Western world could've been nuclear by now, living off of cheap and plentiful energy, except for the Left's unhinged hysteria.
Planned blackouts! Sounds like a Davos inspired decision.
For arguments sake assume global warming due to CO2 is real. It really is not. Why is the western world crippling itself via renewables while India and China pour vast amounts of CO2 into the air via coal plants. Our reductions in CO2 will make absolutely no difference due to increases in CO2 levels from China and India.
One must also ask what caused the last ice age and why did it stop. Man had nothing to do with this. It is actually orbital mechanics of the earth.
Will the icecaps melt? If history is any guide to past ice ages and there were many, the icecaps will probably melt and man has nothing to do with it. Man will slowly retreat from the sea as we have been doing for the last 20,000 years. Oddly at the end of this ice age the icecaps melted at a great rate. The present rate of melting is a fraction of the past. It is feasible to say we may be on the verge of a new ice age. This has happened in the past.
This facade of science foisted on us is really ALL ABOUT CONTROLLING US!
The US, the UK, the EU, Australia...
All with the same problems at the same time.
And the same kind of voting software.
What a coinkydink.
The Great Reset is upon you enjoy
Yep , Winter does get cold
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.