Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – The Aussie Government ABC has advised people to commute to the office rather than trying to work from home, to prevent blackouts caused by everyone working from home switching on their air conditioners.
Why working from home could be a disaster for Australia’s electricity grid this summer
Air conditioners could send Australia’s power grid into meltdown this summer, as roughly one third of the workforce do their jobs from home, experts have warned.
Key points:
- Air-conditioning drives power demand in peak periods
- Higher numbers of people working from home will likely mean more stress on Australia’s power grid
- Last summer was Australia’s second-hottest on record
According to research company Roy Morgan, more than 4.3 million Australians are working from home as employees and employers continue to take a cautious approach to coronavirus social-distancing.
But warmer weather has come with a warning that increased use of air-conditioning in homes could lead to more blackouts and higher electricity bills.
“Air-conditioning is what drives our maximum demand in Australia,” said Peter Dobney, the former founding chairman of the Energy Users Association of Australia.
“We can expect higher prices, in fact, I think that’s a certainty.”
…
“It’s very clear there is a risk here, with the air-conditioning running in the home and in the building at the same time,” Dr Bannister said.
“And cooling a house, it’s not as well insulated as a building, and the home may be less energy efficient.”
…
Could the utter failure of Australia’s green revolution possibly get any funnier?
Greens finally got something they really wanted – less commuting, more people working from home – only to see this victory slipping from their grasp, because their precious renewable energy heavy electricity grid cannot handle the load of more people working from home.
When ‘our’ ABC studios in all capital cities switch to 100% unicorn f*rts day AND NIGHT, I might consider watching it again.
Mmmm … maybe not.
A little trivia. The GPO Box number of the ABC in all capital cities is 9994, which is taken from the great Sir Donald Bradman’s test batting average of 99.94.
Your taxpayer dollars at work, telling people when to stay or leave their home in their own private time. Thanks, but get stuffed.
Try that in Victoria, Australia right now and you WILL be removed from your vehicle!
If this was an entirely fossil grid and the population switched suddenly to home working, I see no evidence there’s have been sufficient capacity for the extra demand.
California saw record demand in its heatwave: would there have been enough peaker fossil fuel to accomodate that? I don’t see the evidence there would have been.
Record demand in places with now extreme heat strains any grid.
So now we need the spare capacity for hot weather AS WELL AS the all the extra capacity for when they have to cover for “MIA” wind and solar.
You are an IDIOT, griff. !!
There has been very little heat increase, barely 1 degree since the COLDEST period in almost 10,000 years.
That heat increase is not due to human CO2.. you have proven that.
This “extreme heat ” LIE of yours in based on NOTHING but UHI effects, and you KNOW that.
Of course when you remove RELIABLE power supplies from the grid, when you have increasing populations, you stress the grid.
Try not to be an ignorant fool all you life , griff. !
hmm all the no shade no verandah no openable windows cos double glazed etc
little to NO thought on siting homes to ensure less heat absorption by placement to sun
and throw in a nation of weak wonders who cant live without aircon 24/7
add some nice extra heat from watersaving ecogardens of gravel holding heat and not giving any moisture via transpiration, no decent trees cos “make a mess leaves in gutters etc birds sit n pop on our posh cars”
millons more cars throwing out huge heat and ditto those aircons
yup manmade warming indeedy
ALL localised to the termite mounds of cities
hell even termites build better!!! much better
When one lie doesn’t work, griff thinks up 2 new ones.
CA did not see record demand this past summer.
Beyond that, the amount of fossil fuel plants that have been shut down in the last 10 years was more than enough to have handled the recent surge, had they been allowed to continue to operate.