Despite the articles and the BOM even admitting to the problem and claiming they are coming up with ways to mitigate the problem its amazing how some people just turn away from the facts.
Here is the video again, a way to see this video is tribal belief mechanisms vs logic/facts
https://youtu.be/S74C-XF9kYY
This screenshot at this point is my favorite bit, the increase bubble shield against facts.
I happened to meet someone who had quit the BOM about 6 months ago and he basically said it has a problem with a lot of the staff being political climate quasi-nut jobs. He didn't want to go into details because I think he was very conscious of what he might get caught saying but it looked like he wanted to unload a bunch of dirty secrets, as he looked quite frustrated.
So Victoria had a big blackout on Sunday/Saturday, peak were 50,000 homes, so probably 150,000 people if its 3 ppl per home? State head Daniel Andrews said basically its everyone else's fault but his, his main argument being that Jeff Kennet privatized the electricity sector 25 years ago in Victoria and despite being no problems until now its not his fault.
I am kind of surprised we had any problems, I figured the shutdown of all the major car manufacturing in Victoria and SA would have freed up alot of electricity, but I think the problem of just an ever-increasing immigration/population of the city is just too much as well as losing the Hazelwood power-station last year because Daniel Andrews believed he could bring in a few extra million by tripling the coal royalty price of the Hazelwood power-station owners and the Hazelwood owners basically closing it 1 year to the day of the price increase annoucement.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorias-own-mining-tax-to-triple-as-treasurer-gouges-brown-coal-for-revenue-20160422-gocymk.html
The creeping death effect of increasing the cost of baseload electricity makes a ripple effect of making everything more dodgy, no one wants to support poles and wires etc as it just piles on more costs to consumers who are already annoyed about electricity prices.
In a more non-socialist society?, those who want supposedly green energy could pay the upfront costs of a very large solar roof and battery storage. And everyone else can just stick to more affordable fossil fuel grid until the Bill Gates nuclear reactor or whatever comes along.
Melbourne blackouts: system buckled under ‘intense’ demand
BLACKOUTS plagued more than 60,000 homes statewide at the weekend despite Victorians being slugged hundreds of dollars a year in fees to maintain the electricity network.
The average household will pay from $404 to $673 in tariffs for poles and wires this year, a sum that can account for 20 to 40 per cent of a retail bill.
The charges are levied to pay for network maintenance and to ensure “a safe and reliable electricity supply”.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbourne-blackouts-system-buckled-under-intense-demand/news-story/c922b4197df6018f8747fd22a2eb76a2
I guess the thing I want to point out is that with Renewable energy, its dangerous to dumb governments/democratic societies where people see a big windfarm picture saying "this is 1,000MW, it creates power cheaper than coal" wind farm facebook memes and with the government heads being no smarter assume it can virtually provide 1000MW 24/7.
The window I have been able to see into Daniel Andrews mind in terms of energy or business savviness is on an early teenagers intelligence level.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/victoria-energy-crisis-blackouts-continue-as-cool-change-nears/news-story/b6451569cfe578e976abfabd8164f73f?utm_source=The%20Australian&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=TodaySHeadlines
Victoria energy crisis: Scope for power compensation, Andrews says
Sweltering conditions have caused energy chaos across Victoria as more than 17,000 homes remain without power, blackouts expected to continue until late Monday.
But the state government has been quick to stress issues with poles, wires and substations are responsible for the outages, rather than a supply issue.
“There were distribution and localised network problems in individual neighbourhoods,” Premier Daniel Andrews said on Monday.
There were nearly 50,000 properties in Victoria without power at one point on Sunday, as temperatures hit the high 30s in Melbourne.
Hot conditions have tested the Victorian power system. Picture: Mark Stewart.
About 15,760 properties serviced by distributor United Energy’s network were still without power as of 9am Monday, while 275 were without power in the CitiPower and Powercor networks and 1200 in Ausnet’s network. Jemena said no outages were present in its network, but about 1050 of the properties were without power at 9:30pm on Sunday.
Mr Andrews said there could be scope for compensation.
“We are looking at all available means to compel companies to compensate people.”
A spokesman for United Energy, CitiPower and Powercor said fuse faults at their substations were to blame for the majority of outages, the demand for power increasing as temperatures soared into the 40s across the state.
“The prolonged high temperatures and humidity through the weekend significantly increased electricity demand at many locations across the network,” the spokesman said.
“Due to the large volume of faults, in some cases there may be extended restoration times with power in some areas likely to be affected until this evening.”
A slow-moving cool change is set to bring relief later on Monday and arrive in Melbourne sometime between 3pm and 4pm, with authorities warning the very young, elderly and chronically ill are most at risk of being affected by the conditions.
“They can’t regulate their temperature as well, (and) a lot of people don’t know that they’re getting dehydrated and they get dehydrated very quickly,” State health commander Paul Holman said.
“The homeless, people outside, just make sure if you see someone in trouble, check to see if they’re OK.
“If they need an ambulance, call triple-zero.”
People, dogs, and horses cool off at Altona dog beach after a hot night. Picture: Nicole Garmston.
People, dogs, and horses cool off at Altona dog beach after a hot night. Picture: Nicole Garmston.
Public Transport Victoria says it has been dousing swelling tram tracks with water in Melbourne and plans to implement speed restrictions for some regional train services.
The predicted cool change won’t reach Victoria’s southeast until early Tuesday while temperatures in the northeast are forecast to remain in the low 30s until Wednesday.
Victorian Black/power-price article2
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/wholesale-energy-prices-doublelast-summers/news-story/bc420cd4b3da94d9b99d0df3663aef48
Also points out electricity prices for Victoria have doubled since a year ago.
Wholesale energy prices double in a year in Victoria and South Australia
Average wholesale energy prices in Victoria and South Australia have more than doubled since this time last year, as experts warn that blackouts and supply issues are likely to increase as state governments chase aggressive renewable energy targets.
More than 2000 Victorian households remained without power yesterday after two days of heat triggered equipment failures and blackouts, opening up distributors to compensation claims.
The mass outages affected more than 60,000 residents, some of whom were cut off for more than 28 hours.
The outages struck as new data showed the average wholesale energy price in Victoria climbed to $139 this month, up from $62 in January last year. In South Australia, the wholesale average price for January climbed to almost $170, up from $84 a year ago, whereas prices fell in NSW and Queensland to about $75.
The pricing data has angered energy experts, who say blackouts and supply issues are likely to increase and prices are likely to rise as the Victorian and South Australian governments pursue renewable energy targets without prioritising power sources that can supply baseload power.
READ MORE
Battery solution too costly
Grattan Institute energy director Tony Wood said Sunday’s and Monday’s blackouts and high pricing showed that the state had botched its energy transition program by allowing baseload power sources — such as the Hazelwood power station — to be replaced by renewables, which delivered intermittent power.
“We’re dealing with a complex transition and it hasn’t been managed very well so far,” Mr Wood said. “That’s why we’ve seen local outages and high prices on the weekend, and that’s the reason why wholesale prices are substantially higher this year than last year.
“It’s a reflection of a failed policy. We’re transitioning away from centralised, cheap but dirty power stations, but we’re not replacing these stations with sources that are just as stable.”
The Andrews government last year broke away from other states and territories by instituting its own Victorian Renewable Energy Target, with a plan for renewables to power 40 per cent of the state’s energy needs by 2025.
Mr Wood said the energy supply could get patchier and the state could emerge as a net importer of electricity as the government replaced coal-fired power stations with solar and wind and other intermittent power sources, which did not fire 24 hours a day.
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg confirmed that the weekend power outages were the result of distribution rather than supply issues, but said the state government needed to do more to boost reliability.
He urged Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to rethink the renewable energy target while branding South Australia’s renewables plan an experiment gone “horribly wrong”.
“Reliability standards for networks are set by state governments,” Mr Frydenberg said. “AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) have highlighted that supply in Victoria is tight and that is why we have called upon the Andrews government to drop its reckless state-based renewable energy targets and mindless bans on gas.
“Jay Weatherill’s ‘big experiment’ has gone horribly wrong. South Australia has the highest prices and the least stable energy system in the country and, despite the bravado in the lead-up to summer, their energy problems remain. Just a couple of weeks ago, South Australia’s prices reached $14,200 a megawatt hour, while at the same time they were $89 a MWh in NSW and $85 MWh in Queensland.
“The wind turbines, which can produce 100 per cent of energy on one day and zero on another, were not blowing when needed most, providing less than 5 per cent of power and Jay Weatherill’s big battery less than 1 per cent.”
Australian Power Project chief executive Nathan Vass warned that Victoria’s energy supply with a larger proportion of renewables likely would have buckled under conditions such as those of Sunday night.
“Batteries and solar would not have saved Victoria as over 17,000 Victorians had no power throughout the night, when the sun isn’t shining,” Mr Vass said.
“Pairing renewables with battery storage wouldn’t have done much to alleviate the blackout. By way of example, the Tesla battery facility in South Australia only provides power for an hour to 30,000 homes.”
Release of the wholesale pricing data in South Australia — and data showing South Australia still has the highest prices in the National Electricity Market — prompted state opposition energy spokesman Dan van Holst Pellekaan to savage a claim by Mr Weatherill that his $550 million “self-sufficient” energy plan was producing the lowest power prices in the national market.
“South Australians are furious about the outrageous price of electricity they pay and tired of the Weatherill government’s refusal to accept responsibility,” Mr van Holst Pellekaan said.
SA Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said wholesale power prices were “notoriously volatile”. “Since August, wholesale power prices in South Australia have been consistently cheaper than Victoria, and in September and October, SA had the cheapest wholesale prices of mainland states in the National Electricity Market,” he said.
In Victoria, Mr Andrews blamed the outages on the Coalition’s decision to privatise the state’s energy assets in the 1990s. “Fact is, there was more than enough power being generated to meet the demand yesterday — but the private companies and their distribution systems failed yet again,” he said on Twitter.
Mr Andrews said he would push for distributors to pay compensation to households that were left for long periods without power.
Thought I would post the article of Cobalt from Bloomberg, despite so many children digging the crucial lithium cell ingredient up in Africa to help the green movement for a meal a day ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJ8me22NVs ) , cobalt continues to get more expensive. The DRC in Africa exports about 10 times more cobalt than any other country.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-cobalt-batteries/
Also, the Australian government is looking at subsidizing electric cars despite the well-studied facts showing that charging an EV anywhere in Australia except for Tasmania (due to hydro) would actually emit more co2 than fossil fuel cars
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/the-case-for-subsidies-for-electric-vehicles-is-weak/news-story/d3fe1cc3ddd6462ee6da8c0a8ca3a224
To me its really a battle of if they Greens/Left want to subsidize child african mining slavery for cobalt lithium mining.
