Essay by Eric Worrall
Aussie PM Anthony Albanese testing to destruction the fallacy that renewable energy can reduce power bills.
Electricity prices rose to their highest on record – and the nightmare is set to continue
‘Australians haven’t seen a fraction of what’s coming.’
Alex Chapman / Energy / Updated 3 days ago
Millions of Australian households are being warned their power bills will continue to rise after the country’s energy market operator reported record-high costs.
In a report on Friday, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said wholesale power costs soared in the three months to June.
Average prices for the quarter were $264 per megawatt hour.
That’s more than triple the $85 per megawatt hour reported during the same period in 2021.
The AEMO said a combination of factors contributed to the “extraordinary” rise.
“The impacts in local fuel markets of extremely high international prices for traded gas and thermal coal.
“Reduced availability of coal-fired generation, due to scheduled maintenance as well as long- and short duration forced outages, driving high levels of gas-fired generation, which both raised electricity prices and put pressure on local gas markets.
“Physical fuel supply and hydrological constraints at a number of thermal and hydro generators, which further limited their operational flexibility.”
Bruce Mountain, the inaugural Director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre at Victoria University, says Australians should expect to see their power bills double over the coming year.
“Australians haven’t seen a fraction of what’s coming,” he told 7NEWS.com.au.
It would take “spectacular” circumstances for prices to come back down, he said.
“We honestly don’t know how long it will be until prices begin to normalise,” Mountain said.
“I’ve seen some speculation it could be years, but we just don’t know.”
…
Read more: https://7news.com.au/business/energy/electricity-prices-rose-to-their-highest-on-record-and-the-nightmare-is-set-to-continue-c-7682999
Our Prime Minister’s response to this crisis is to stand by his modelling that renewables will bring down power prices. But even if renewables were capable of bringing down power prices, which they aren’t, by staying the course our PM is condemning ordinary Australians to years of excruciating electricity bills.
Remembers those coal plants various Aussie governments celebrated shutting down? Any of them could have taken the edge off today’s spiralling energy prices.
Remember those nuclear plants Australia refused to consider building? Nuclear plants are immune from short term price fluctuations, they only have to be refuelled every two years, and the next batch of fuel can be prepared ahead of time, ready for use. Australia has vast reserves of Uranium.
The one thing which won’t save us is renewables. If a nation of engineers like Germany can’t make renewables work, if Germany can’t sever their dependency on Russian gas through all the billions they have invested into renewables, nobody can.
There is plenty Australia could do to increase gas availability – just getting out of the way, lifting fracking bans, and letting entrepreneurs cash in by building desperately needed gas wells would be enough.
But I don’t expect a sensible response to our energy price crisis from our current crop of politicians. The Aussie Government’s response so far has been to pin their hopes on renewables saving the day, while demonising gas companies, and threatening to expropriate their gas, under emergency powers.
Expropriating gas might alleviate immediate shortages, and provide short term relief. But expropriation could cause a collapse in remaining gas field investment. Nobody likes having their stuff taken away by force, and investors are already wary of Australian regulatory hostility. Expropriation could make Australia uninvestable.
The Labor Government is about to pass legislation that mandates emission reduction of 43% by 2030. I have yet to see any journalist ask the questions, how much is this going to cost? And how much will this lower the temperature of the planet?
The better question is what does emissions mean?
If it includes reducing CO2 then the biggest question is why on earth would we want to do that?
The Kyoto Agreement referred to “greenhouse gas emissions”, the Paris Agreement focused on Carbon Dioxide???
And how many Australians can be expected to survive to the other side? Lots of good questions going unasked.
Same climate lunacy by the Irish politicians.
It has recently been pointed out that via legislation, as compared to signing the Paris Agreement, into law the legislation will provide activist groups with many new opportunities to challenge projects that produce emissions directly, or indirectly as with coal and gas extraction.
it might, but then laws are meant to be broken, and a new govt will do so if it wants to be safe
Simon,
it is one thing to pass legislation, but another to actually comply. Just how can such a reduction be achieved in such a short time frame.
Renewables won’t do it, so what is the plan?
Well the plan is to install lots more wind and solar generators and wire them all up and get us out of ICEs and all into EVs with the electricity and wires-
Electric Car Crusaders Must Acknowledge Problems Or The Revolution Will Fail (forbes.com)
Simples really.
Simples? (I know that’s sarcasm)
I’d like to ask the EV promoters –
Please explain how EVs can grow from sales of around 6.6m in 2021 (to bring the total in the world to c 16m) to replace all the over 1.4 billion ICEVs in the world.
To get the EU alone to a total of 200 – 250m EVs by 2030, according to the IEA, would require 30 – 50 new lithium mines, 41 – 60 new nickel mines and 11-17 new cobalt mines. It’s eight years to 2030 and the IEA itself says it takes a new mine aound 16 years to reach full production.
EV promoters are deluded.
Some electricity generated for them could also be useful.
If EV promoters were not deluded there would be no EV’s ?
You put the right question: how could it be done?
Unless…
… unless the real objective is to spend taxpayers’ money by “redistributing” it (i.e., by making it change hands).
I want to see a real investigative journalist dismantle the BS. Someone like Sharri Markison, who took the wuhan lab theory from being something that would get banned for Facebook or Twitter for mentioning it to front page news worldwide. It only takes one journalist to take on the narrative too expose the whole scam. We just need someone to step up.
Well that at least is an advance on the EU which instead of focussing on reducing emissions focussed on a ‘renewable obligation’ instead, which has trebled electricity prices and left emissions virtually unchanged.
The available data, of which there is quite a lot, indicate there has been no climate effect, either way, from human CO2 emission reduction. Models ‘prove’ that CO2 growth warms the climate if it is assumed that ALL climate variability is climate change, i.e. due to humans. Climate change due to humans IS the real ‘Net Zero’ and the prophesy is self-fulfilling .
The ozone hole, for which Nobel Prizes were received, is a much simpler problem. Mandated reduction in CFCs did not reduce the Antarctic ozone hole. Meanwhile, a new ozone hole did appear over the Arctic. Both were massive in 2021; no doubt a result of the pandemic.
The most important players, China and India, now refuse to play such foolish games. Only the gullible West politicians play. It is a bad joke – on the West.
Remember to blame oil companies, the weather, and George Bush among other arm waving techniques.
BTW, where is the update on the grand demonstration projects of concentrating solar mirrors in Australia? Let’s see some follow up reporting.
He he – the big problem for solar in Australia is dust. I ran a small device using a solar panel for a while because I didn’t have a handy power point. It worked OK, between 10am and 4pm. But at least once a week I had to wipe all the crud off. Just washing wasn’t enough, I really had to scrub it – our desert dust sticks to everything, and doesn’t want to let go.
Mr. Worrall: Here in USA, we have the best dust money can buy. WE also have an issue with hard stuff like “maintenance” (eewwww!) and will let old panels go while adding new dust collectors from China. My guess is the greens will keep adding solar panels, won’t clean them, and the “backup” NG will supply all electricity, while the greens claim it’s working!
Yes, like on vehicles, window rubbers, underneath, sticks like super glue.
The Saudis have researched this extensively – but not solved it. In the Saudi desert, the “washing” is required at least monthly, and immediatley after a dust storm. Of course, the required water IS a problem. Electrostatic removal works poorly. Dust loves to bond to surfaces. It is not just an Aussie issue.
The cost is still $86 per MegaWatt hour in Western Australia 🙂
no can do cos its gone nowhere, as sane people knew it should
$264 is still a lot cheaper than the £9,724.54 per megawatt hour the UK paid to Belgium – 5,000% higher than the typical price
Eye watering stuff
Yeah, and Brussels wants other countries to share the pain of gas shortages in the EU.
Is there a tax revenue gain from higher prices for electricity on consumers in Australia?
Most of the increase is not materialised as the bulk of electricity is subject to longer term contracts. The majority of material gain is going into profits of private companies so the government will get a portion depending on the ability of said companies to hide their income.
The forward price for contracts is rising dramatically though. That is why it is easy to forecast increasing prices for a long time out.
The wholesale price has been about 30% of the retail price, which has been averaging around $300/MWh. So the increase in wholesale price to almost $300/MWh means Australia is set to almost double the retail price. And that is before all the extra costs of new transmission lines, new stabilising batteries and synchronous condensers and higher cost for the LGCs and STCs as target is increased.
Any householder in Australia with a 10 year time horizon would be far better off installing their own solar panels and batteries and just leaving the grid to the poor who will be selectively subsidised to afford their electricity. Australian energy intensive manufacturing was stuffed a decade ago; way ahead of the situation now emerging in Germany.
But they will be far worse off installing solar panels and batteries than they would be if government stopped their war against nuclear power and fossil fuels. Government has the power to make hamburger more expensive than sirloin. That doesn’t make sirloin more affordable.
Eric,
The “nightmare” has nothing to do with greens. The AEMO gave the reasons:
<i>”“The impacts in local fuel markets of extremely high international prices for traded gas and thermal coal.
“Reduced availability of coal-fired generation, due to scheduled maintenance as well as long- and short duration forced outages, driving high levels of gas-fired generation, which both raised electricity prices and put pressure on local gas markets.
“Physical fuel supply and hydrological constraints at a number of thermal and hydro generators, which further limited their operational flexibility.””</i>
And then
“Expropriating gas might alleviate immediate shortages, and provide short term relief. But expropriation could cause a collapse in remaining gas field investment.”
So we’ve had sob stories about how shortage of gas has exposed Australians to carbon monoxide poisoning and the miseries of energy poverty. But when it is proposed that some of the gas that flows past their doorsteps on its way to China could be diverted to alleviate that desperate situation, no, no, that would be far too unkind to investors in their search for maximised profits.
In fact that gas belongs to all of us; it is extracted and marketed under license. And the license terms give provision for the AEMO to reserve gas for local markets, which is what it is doing.
More dissembling from Nick Stokes, what a surprise. His career and pension are built on these unnecessarily high prices. Instead, you Aussies might:
o fire Nick, in fact bin the entire CSIRO joke of an operation
o build some new coal-fired electricity generation plants (saving nat gas for end consumers)
o mine coal
o burn coal
o blow up the stupid windmills (making sure to recycle them responsibly)
o stop paying for privately owned solar generation, except when actually needed
o rejoice
Nick, I never suggested the government doesn’t have the legal right to expropriate gas. What I suggested is expropriating gas would severely damage investment and future gas availability.
That gas doesn’t belong to everyone, it belongs to the people who dug it up.
Does my automobile “belong to everyone” in Australia because it is largely made of processed iron ore mined from the Pilbarra?
Does my bank balance “belong to everyone” because the government printed the money?
Your argument the gas “belongs to everyone” because it came from an Australian mine leased from the government is absurd.
Well, Nick reckons “collective action” is the way to resolve energy crises.
But that “collective” apparently doesn’t include poor people in under developed countries.
“All people are equal, but some people are more equal than others”
Does my bank balance “belong to everyone” because the government printed the money?
Eric? the NWO will be around at 6 to take you to a nice little education adventure. Don’t bother packing. You will own nothing and be happy.
/snark
Last time I passed through Hong Kong, a Red Army Guard stopped the passengers and read a list with three names. Mine was one of them. He took me to a room and glared at me without saying anything for a minute, then waved me out the door.
I can take a hint.
I guess the hint you took was to never return.
What don’t you get?
Australia has installed 20GW of wind and solar. All that capacity delivered less than 4GW on average and as little as 400MW over Q2 2022.
If the money had been invested in new coal generators and mine expansion like China and India are doing then the retail electricity price would be half the current price and a quarter of what it will be next year.
Like Germany, Australia has wasted vast resources on unsustainable technology. W&S plus storage of present technology cannot deliver more energy over its short operating life than it takes to install the capacity. That lesson will be increasingly grasped by a wider proportion of the population as this nightmare unfolds.
“If the money had been invested in new coal generators and mine expansion”
There has been plenty of mine expansion (eg Adani). But it is exported. The last new coal generator was Kogan Creek in 2007. Investors can see that coal-fired cannot survive long-term the competition even from gas, let alone renewables.
Pretending that renewables (wind solar) are in any way a ‘competitor” for reliable dispatchable energy supplies, is the big FALLACY behind the whole scam.
Coal fired power, if you take away all the idiotic “carbon” factors and restrictions, and provide incentive for reliability of supply, (rather than constantly promising to “shut down coal” will out-compete gas, solar, wind by a huge margin.
Get rid of the RET ! There is absolutely no reason for it.
“Renewables” in the guise of wind and solar will NEVER be able to survive without constant reliance on some form of “reliable” power generation – nuclear, coal, gas, diesel, and ultimately – community housing torn down for firewood (bio fuel).
The world should have followed France and Japan into nuclear back in the 80s.
Now we couldn’t get a decent lick of warmth from cremating David Suzuki and Bob Brown together as a “2-fer” package.
And why is it exported?
1 – cause people wish to buy it
2 – those people have been driven from Australia.
Your argument is taking the solution you like and working backwards.
Let me word your arguments a different way.
1 – Ban Nick from posting
2 – Observe that Nick now has zero posts
3 – Conclude that Nick has nothing to say and
4 – there is no point in removing the Nick ban.
Same logic.
Nick,
Why not, when coal is far cheaper than renewables, when real-life operational costs like intermittency are included in the cost analysis? Also, coal stockpiles are easier than gas, while renewables have none. Geoff S
coal would be fine if the greentards stfu and let it rip
The predicted demise of coal was premature at best. Schernikau and Smith looked at the issues, using IPCC approved metrics, in a reviewed article:
Schernikau, L. and Smith, W. H. 2022 Climate impacts of fossil fuels in today’s electricity systems. Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, vol. 122, no. 3, pp. 133-146. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2411-9717/1874/2022.
The big test will be when Liddell and Eraring coal power stations, close by 2025. That will reduce NSW, 24/7 energy capacity by 45%. The AEMO have requested load reduction from some of the biggest power consumers. This is coupled together with the use of controlled load, switching off hot water elements for those homes with FI relays, between 5pm and 8pm. The load profile graph shows a flattening during that period. The AEMO are starting to sweat in their efforts to prove that they can supply Australia with renewables.
Yes and we’re all told to ditch our ICE vehicles and switch to an EV. I’m sure that’s going to work out real well…
It’s about to get Nick(y) around here:
Now you want to deprive many other countries from staying warm so you can have cheap power. Shared stupidity deserves shared pain.
It would be reasonable for Australia to withhold gas from the rest of the world if Australia was open about telling them they are doing stupid things but Australia has been doing the same stupid things. The sooner more Australians realise it is stupid to be expanding W&S capacity, the sooner they will vote in a government prepared to stop doing these stupid things.
One of the problems in Australia is that mineral rights are held by the Crown, as represented by the jurisdiction which administers that particular area. Within State boundaries, that is the State government (e.g. Victoria). Within Australian territory not represented by a State government, it is the Commonwealth of Australia.
Rights to utlilise a particular mineral within a particular area are leased to individuals or companies for a certain period under agreed conditions. Essentially, the lessee “owns” whatever minerals are extracted within the terms of that agreement.
Because the land owner who either owns (freehold) or leases the land from the jurisdiction (term lease or lease in perpetuity) has downsides from mineral extraction but no upside, there is an immediate conflict between the land owner and the mineral lessee.
If the terms of the lease include a provision for the jurisdiction taking some of the extracted mineral, that will be factored in, and presumably includes compensation for inability to meet contractual obligations.
If the jurisdiction or Commonwealth takes the product under emergency powers of some sort, that is regarded as sovereign risk, and increases the risk of operating within that jurisdiction. That flows on to the need for a higher rate of return to cover the increased risk, and may lead to investment not proceeding.
Don’t forget natural resources now locked away in UN registered National Parks that were state government lands, and the new Albanese Labor Government wants to increase the number of National Parks.
Natural resources are a much bigger and wrigglier can of worms than the minerals subset 🙁
Old Cocky,
Around 1985 I spent a number of days with two Queens Council drafting a Bill for an Act that would give the Commonwealth control of minerals in the ground in the Territories, plus ceded ownership to the first party able to demonstrate that it had discovered the new mineral deposit and was capable of mining it or farming it out. It would have required a Constitutional Referendum to extend this practical scheme to a State.
It was ignored. Geoff S
Thanks, Geoff. It’s great to have the insights of somebody who has been there, done that and got the tee shirt to prove it.
Old Cocky said [there is an immediate conflict between the land owner and the mineral lessee.] This has often been resolved by mineral lessee/explorer buying the landowners land at an inflated price – plus often surrounding land.
That would be the only practical solution for mining, which has a large footprint. It may not apply to gas wells, where the concern is more to do with sub-artesian water and the impacts of increased traffic.
Practical aspects aren’t necessarily the major factor, either. Think of “The Castle”.
ps I should really have said there is an immediate conflict between the interests of the land owner and the mineral lessee. Sloppy wording leads to misunderstandings.
Old Cocky,
We disagree about mining having a large footprint.
We found and operated several new metallic mines on roughly 25 sq km each. If you add in new roads, new water dams, new townships, new schools for the locals and so on, that of course increases. If you are into coal and iron ore mines, each excavation is typically larger than for a metal mine, but the rehab is typically easier..
Sloppy wording on my part again, Geoff. Mining has a large footprint compared to drilling and fluid extraction.
Old Cocky,
Here is one of our discoveries after 20 years of mining, now closed for the time being. Geoff S
http://www.geoffstuff.com/rum25sqkm.jpg
And from the aircraft,
http://www.geoffstuff.com/rangeraerial.jpg
Nick
Those quotes of yours were from the body AEMO whose basic recommendations for our future NEM were in their Integrated System Plan 2018, This plan was dominated by two thrusts, the attainment of 70% and more renewables penetration and the almost non-mention of planning outside the ideology of the Paris agreement. They say so in their report.
The AEMO was thus heavily influenced by global resource politics.
It did not canvass, to any significant extent, fallback electricity plans for a time when global warming might be shown wrong and was blown up like an old coal fired power station.
AEMO did not warn that the renewables kWh retail price would likely become multiples higher than our old coal system prices were.
………………..
Nick, on the topic of ownership, AEMO represented international politics and pressure groups. It did not really represent the ordinary Australian.
AEMO, let us have a balance. Write a report that is not dominated by climate change speculations. That is what is missing.
AEMO is supposed to “belong” to Australian people, you know, the folk who pay it.
Geoff S
Geoff,
“ It did not really represent the ordinary Australian.”
I think the ordinary Australian who is suffering from carbon monoxide and all the other terrors of energy poverty that Eric tells us about, would be very glad of AEMO’s action to get some Australian gas reserved for the local market.
Nick,
This Australian voter prefers that Australian electricity supply is dictated by the wishes of the people and managed by competent free market specialist engineers etc., more like it was before AEMO was invented.
This voter was never asked if we needed a regulatory AEMO. This voter was never asked if AEMO should be doing primarily what UN climate change bodies dictate.
If we never had an AEMO, if we had never moved into large scale renewables, we would be a much stronger, job-attracting, productive manufacturing economy. I knew/know nobody in the aluminium sector, for example, who would even look at smelting/refining proposals powered by wind and/or solar.
But industry,also, was hardly consulted. Nor were farmers. Right now, Aussie farmers are on a path they did not choose, a path similar to Sri Lanka’s. Mass Murder by decree.
I am not sure that Aussie voters want AEMO bureaucratic, dogma-laden compulsion. But, most voters were not asked.
Geoff S
Well done Nick, you are now admitting that CO poisoning is actually real and has actually affected some Australians.
Let me quote you from above:
So we’ve had sob stories about how shortage of gas has exposed Australians to carbon monoxide poisoning and the miseries of energy poverty.
(my bold)
When it suits you you have shown mockery towards people being affected by fuel/energy prices. Sob Story is a slur. The strong implication is the argument is weak and has been deliberately dressed up with overt displays of emotion.
You have mocked these stories.
Yet now they are the cornerstone of your argument that the AEMO is like Saint Penny of Wong only with extra glitter.
Out of context but I heard an important statement last night:
“Never lie to the internet.”
The internet never forgets. If you are really lucky your lies will stop getting views, but they will always exist and it only takes one person to expose you.
Be consistent in your arguments. Do not pick and choose just to get a post out.
AEMO was/is well aware of its “heroic (diabolical)” modelling assumptions. They have received reports and briefings since 2017 on the run-away “total system costs” in following their ideological beliefs. Several reports available here: Electricity System Model (modelling.energy)
That they would foist the high cost of electricity on the Australian consumer – especially those that can ill afford it – is a grave wrong-doing perpetrated by their Executive as well as the Ministers for Energy.
You continually try to change the subject. The point of the story is that unreliable solar and wind HASN’T REDUCED the price of electricity. You have multiple times touted how solar and wind are cheaper that coal, oil, gas and nuclear since the “fuel” is free. Every new solar panel and each new wind machine should be reducing the price to the consumer! Why isn’t that happening even as we speak? At what percent penetration will solar and wind begin to reduce electricity cost to consumers?
Why don’t you go ahead and admit that unreliable generation will always be more expensive that coal, gas, oil, and nuclear. At some point the public WILL start to ask why aren’t prices what they used to be. I’ll bet you won’t be around to tell them.
He is obfuscating 😉
“The point of the story is that unreliable solar and wind…”
That is Eric’s spin. But the point of the story he relies on is:
“Millions of Australian households are being warned their power bills will continue to rise after the country’s energy market operator reported record-high costs.”
And they explain why. Basically high international prices for gas and oil. We have plenty of both of those, but we export huge volumes, so local customers have to pay world prices. And no amount of increased extraction, or even more power stations, will lower those prices.
Long-term supply contracts or hedging with futures contracts or options can mitigate those price risks, as can currency hedging (the AUD is down to around .70 USD in case nobody noticed).
However, this requires a reasonable estimate of future volume requirements and a risk-averse approach.
If the market is structured such that quantities are difficult to predict, hedging may be counter-productive.
In the electricity generation area, gas has typically been used for rapid-response such as meeting peak demand or filling in short-term shortfalls, so supply requirements are semi-predictable. It would be surprising if at least a reasonable percentage of “normal” supply isn’t already hedged.
Nick,
If you Directed a gas company, would you voluntarily lower prices and profits to offset poor decisions by politicians who are telling the public to have you and your product?
Fair suck of the sauce bottle!
Geoff S
Anticipatory words again, I am discouraged from writing “hate”. Better for the software to use “have” (and so destroy the central thrust of the comment).
“Basically high international prices for gas and oil”
If we had built up our modern COAL-FIRED fleet a decade or so ago, (as Tony Abbott wanted to).
None of this would be happening.
Australia used to have a surfeit of reliable dispatchable electricity.
That has been slowly whittled away by the dumb, anti-science CO2-hating agenda that people like Nick have pushed.
Yes, Nick, it is people like you and your CSIRO and other ignorant mates, that are truly to blame for the current energy issues in many parts of the world.
You cannot run away and hide!
You cannot cower behind petty distractions.
CO2 at any level attainable in the atmosphere is ONLY BENEFICIAL to life on Earth.
We have to export all of our extracted minerals, Nick, because your green and socialista mates have destroyed every other manufacturing and export business that there was. Without minerals and gas export we would be a third world country.
Yea, thanks Nick.
Nick,
Are you trying to say that an electric power station built by design next to a big coal mine has to lift consumer prices because someone somewhere else in the world is paying more for their coal?
Nick, those stations were built next to coal mines because the economics were good and unaffected by global price rises. That is still the case. Low costs were planned by competent engineers, when they had a say.
If you seek someone to blame, look to those pushing W&S with additional capital costs to duplicate coal power and a larger transmission grid to move electricity from remote wind and solar farms to consumers.
Some of us have been pushing for years, with reasons and costings, that Australia should never have got into renewables at present scale, more so with subsidies to W&S. Some planners are so bewildered by global warming that warning them is like kicking treacle. Geoff S
“Are you trying to say that an electric power station built by design next to a big coal mine has to lift consumer prices because someone somewhere else in the world is paying more for their coal?”
It depends on the deal they struck. But there is always upward pressure on prices, even if the miner can’t at present export. If prices stay low, resources will move towards mines whose produce can be sold at world prices.
You may remember in the 1970’s with the oil price shock. Australia was self-sufficient in oil, and shouldn’t have been affected. But the conservative government of the day insisted that we have “petrol price parity” – ie we pay world prices because someone else in the world is paying more.
Nick,
Primarily, it depends on the quality of the resources and the engineering. Without those, you can play all the economic games you need, but you will seldom get a result that works. Geoff S
the attorneygeneral of Vic stated the smart meters would benefit no one BUT the powercos
and he was right
since they hit our service n supply charges quadrupled and are rising again 1.25c a day x 6mil or so homes in vic alone is a HUGE money for sfa SCAM as the majority of poles n wires were long paid for and govt footed the bill for what was stated a goldplated more than adequate system
that promptly got called not good/big enough within 3 yrs
Gee Nick, and you don’t see the hand of the greens on each of these ‘reasons’. I’m all for Shaming and Naming the leading consensus Climate Scientists who gave what these governments were paying them for in framing policies that have already begun an unstoppable train of disaster that isnt only going to punish only100s of millions of Western citizens, but, could do something worse to a couple of billion of innocent poor around the world.
It’s the Greens and their ‘Scientific’ enablers that are 100% (ir)responsible. You’re a mathematical physicist (I’m an engineer and geologist). Do you now believe in the renewables plan (now needing very expensive patches)? Are you as fully confident today about the inexorable warming from rising CO2 as you were 2 decades ago. Even Gavin Schmidt and Jim Hansen are having major doubts about what models are saying. There will be a lot of the ‘consensus’ thinking about exit strategies as the horror show unfolds .
Being Nick means you never have to admit being wrong. It’s the socialist way.
‘Long and short duration forced outages’ of coal fired generation – might have something to do with non-availability due to explosive demolition of ‘obsolete’ power plants.
What do we need gas for, Australia has vast untapped wind and solar resources, isn’t that right Nick?
Of course Nick ignores the fact that he and his fellow alarmists have done everything in their power to make both gas and coal scarce and expensive.
Gas and coal are not scarce here. We export huge quantities. International prices are high. That is a supply and demand effect, exacerbated by war.
“gas and coal are not scarce here”
We used to have plenty of coal fired power to spare.
It is the anti-CO2 agenda that has changed this situation.
Where re the new “coalies” that should have been built a decade or so ago?
Where is Bayswater 2 ?
Where is the reliable replacement for Hazelwood?
There is no use trying to run away from the fact that all the current issues are because of the idiotic anti-CO2 nonsense… the culmination over time
Many people have said this would happen as we dismembered and allowed out coal fleet to decay.
Climate realists warned against it time and time again.
Well now its happening. !
And we all know where the real blame lies.
“Where re the new “coalies” that should have been built a decade or so ago?”
The last one built was Loy Yang B in 1993, built by the SECV. But then the Liberals privatised SECV, and there has not been a whiff of interest from private capital to build power stations since. There was no pressure for renewables in 1993.
Of course the withdrawal of support from bankers to fund ‘fossil’ projects and the continuous declarations by various charlatans that fossil fuel are “dead” does not endear either maintenance nor capital projects for fossil fuels.
Nick, you’re a smart guy … if 1000GW of solar produces 0 MW when the sun doesn’t shine, then how many MW will 1000000 GW of solar panel produce ? Similarly, wind generators.
Of course Nick, you know the answer is 0 MW and Australia has no backup plan in place, all smoke and mirrors and outright lies.
Until you accept this without condition, you will be remain ideologically educated fool.
The issue is State Governments giving energy security to an entity they don’t control … the AEMO is the problem not the solution.
LOL, indeed, Nick … it is locked up underground never to see the light of day.
Yea, thanks Nick.
So lets test your IQ Nick, Western Australia is having no problems price is still $86 per MegaWatt hour … why is that given your answer above?
The short answer is our State gov weren’t retarded. AEMO is the problem the Eastern State governments have become handcuffed to an outside entity and it’s the same energy security problem Europe is learning.
Yes, WA built in a local reservation into the license conditions. Victoria, of course, did not, because in 1969 LNG technology did not exist, nor did a national market. They built a pipeline to supply Victoria, and that was that. A complication is that, although the negotiations were with Victoria, the offshore gas is in Commonwealth jurisdiction.
AEMO is just emulating the WA policy.
From what I can tell, the WA gas reservation was a condition of the gas leases, so priced into the lessees’ calculations.
In effect, it’s a call option which the WA government can exercise with some pre-determined lead time.
The producers wouldn’t have long-term contracts which bite into the reserve overhead, so any sales within that range will of necessity be in the spot market.
That is a far cry from a jurisdiction exercising emergency powers.
Should other jurisdictions have applied similar clauses or otherwise hedged? Possibly, but this is really the responsibility of the generators/wholesalers and gas wholesalers/retailers. Should they haves hedged? In hindsight, it would appear so, but hindsight is always 20/20.
They are nothing alike and Old Cocky correctly describes how it works. AEMO nor the federal Government own the gas the States do so they are left playing with laws post the fact using export laws which do come under federal control. Essentially they will try to get companies to invalidate export contracts using force majeure of export law changes.
As an example of the limits of AEMO there can be a really funny things happen say if one state contracted to sell all of it’s gas to another state leaving it short. In that situation there is not a dam thing the AEMO or the Feds could do about it as it isn’t subject to federal export laws and the contract stands.
So the AEMO is a very very poor substitute for States controlling there own energy security. To show how far Western Australia takes it’s security read carefully the clause on domestic supply
agree we supply our OWN use first as fair prices the os investors will still make an indecent profit selling the rest os
Commie much?
Germany’s Energiewende is a fair example of the best one can expect out of a drive to use only wind and solar. Thus far, no actual reduction in emissions, and a four hundred percent price increase.
While renewables can’t supply the energy needed to replace themselves, this game only has one ending.
This is what Australia deserves. The dumb asses voted for this.
Not all of us…
In fact very few. The ‘preferential’ voting system we have creates scenarios where greens and other idiots get elected with next to no primary vote.
No, there was no way that your average voter was aware, or could easily have become aware, of the huge costs on the home power bill. MSM hardly told a balanced story. Federal politicians were promising price cuts just before the last election.
It is a large and costly mess directly influenced by ideology instead of engineering and science and unbiased economics.
Do not blame the voter with limited options. Blame the spreaders of fairy story dogma on global warming.
We could have continued with coal and gas, a system designed without much politics, that was among the cheapest and most reliable in the world. Nobody has estimated the cost of ditching that system a short 10 years ago. Maybe AEMO should be directed to do that. Geoff S
First past the post – Primary Vote
Labor 32.7%
Coalition 36.1%
Labor just made the numbers to form government based on Australia’s flawed trickle down lottery preferential voting. Often the candidate with the highest primary vote does not win.
Preferential voting can go either way, and can work well for registering a protest vote if used carefully.
The problem appears to lie in voting “the party line” or even worse “above the line” for the minors. Their preferences may not be allocated as one would expect from the campaign advertising.
As you would know, Australia uses the UK Westminster system of government with some US system added.
The UK has first past the post voting, primary votes only.
And so do many other democratic nations.
Yes, and it’s difficult to lodge an effective protest vote in the UK without running the risk of the greater evil forming government.
For example, voting Greens will take votes away from Labour, and voting UKIP will take votes away from the Conservatives.
In Australia, the equivalent protest vote would be to put Greens first and Labor second, or on the other side One Notion[sic] first and Liberals or Nationals second.
In the most recent election, it worked in Labor’s favour, but in previous elections it worked for the Liberals and Nationals.
At the same time coal has resumed as Australia’s top commodity export, go figure*.
* “used when you tell someone a fact and you then want to say that the fact is surprising, strange or stupid” (Cambridge).
How’s that “stranded asset” going?
“Might be more coal burned in 2022 than any other time in human existence”
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/08/might-be-more-coal-burned-in-2022-than-any-other-time-in-human-existence/
Griff tried to tell us all about those fossil fuel “stranded assets” … his economic advice did not quite pan out 🙂
If I was China I would buy up all of the Australian coal and store it.
Australia just needs the wind and solar 😉
You channeling your inner Adam “Maddog” Bandt?
Wrong on two counts. They have not “invested” but rather wasted. And what they have wasted their billions on is not “renewable” because it is clearly unsustainable.
They have wasted vast energy resources building stuff that cannot even return the energy used in building, transporting and erecting them. It is an illusion. They are destroying their forests to create a nightmare landscape.
Bingo. They are printing debt and turning it into ruins.
You (Aussies) elected him!
No we didn’t. They had there lowest primary vote since the 30s I believe. It is the preference votes that just got them in and the lies of they have a plan, I’m still waiting for the details of this (PlAn!)
Labor’s standard operating principle is to announce loudly and proudly that they have a plan but you need to vote for them first so that they can then work out the details.
This is evident in their not being able to do with power prices what they promised prior to the election and the referendum question on an Aboriginal ‘voice’ that does not have any specifics on how it would be worded or operate.
Lots of grand-sounding ideas but no idea on how to achieve them, then blaming all and sundry when the idea fails.
If the new Labor Government can normalize the relationship, coal exports can resume with China and trade can return as before: Australia exports its thermal coal used to manufacture solar panels and wind turbines that China sends back — perfect synergy 😌 .
Australia is haunted by the memory of “Pig Iron Bob“, the former Conservative PM of Australia who in 1938 pushed for massive exports of iron ore to the Japanese Empire to continue, when it was already obvious that sooner or later the Japanese would return the iron to us in the form of warships and shells.
I think there is a real possibility China will launch an invasion of Taiwan this year, to coincide with the CCP 20th National Congress vote on whether to re-elect Xi Jinping as leader for life.
China is perfectly happy to indulge The West’s obsession with ‘renewables’ thereby strengthening their own manufacturing base and economy, at the same time weakening The West’s.
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”― Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
Will it be the Congress or Nancy’s visit that triggers the invasion?
The Chicoms are bluffing. The Biden administration should get a grip.
An invasion of Taiwan would be a *huge* gamble for the Chicoms.
Chicom leadership should oust Xi and his egotistical fixation on Taiwan, from power. Otherwise, he may get all of you wiped off the face of the Earth.
I don’t think they are. China’s economic chickens are finally coming home to roost, for decades ordinary people have piled all their money into China’s real estate ponzi scheme, and its finally starting to collapse. The CCP will need the mother of all distractions to stop an uprising from sweeping them from power.
This is true, their economy is slowing rapidly and its citizens are exporting their capital and leaving as fast as they can.
Biden has a grip alright but it is not on reality.
Nancy ain’t no Helen Of Troy.
Nancy would be more your “Face That Sunk A Thousand Ships”.
Do they use Dominion voting machines in China?
Of course.
Sadam did too.
How else do you win with 105% of the vote?
These folks will eventually, but at great political cost, rediscovery the equivalent of the Army’s first rule of holes: when in one wanting out, first stop digging.
The Australian government does their part in keeping global commodity prices high too. But they stand to profit hugely on the green scam which will simply waste the planet’s easily obtained battery metal reserves in the end.
Our Prime Minister’s response to this crisis is to stand by his modelling that renewables will bring down power prices.
_______________________________________________
I am reminded of “God will provide” I’m also reminded that God helps those who help themselves. Although I don’t know what that would be under current circumstances.
When God gave the Israelites mannah from heaven, they still had to go out and gather it.
The voter seems to need giant and repeated kicks in the ass! They must be getting to like it. Like UK, Australia and New Zealand conservatives were already left of center. Now they and all the others are fall-off-the cliff lefties.
Canada is trying to get to the cliff too now but, with (real) Conservatives in power for a decade, when Canada consistently led the G7 countries in growth (we, alone, were spared the the economic pain of the global recession of 2008-2009) we were far from today’s cliff edge.
I have tried to warn friends and family to little avail that the parties they are voting for are not in any way like what they think they are. Only the names are unchanged. Voters vote them in but the real constituents are outsourced far across the sea. I fear it will take dropping over the cliff to wake them up. Clearly UK and EU are in the vanguard so the rest of us might be spared the worst of the next few years.
I expect there will be new laws and constitutional amendments passed eventually to enshrine dispatchable low cost energy in boilerplate, once people experience the disaster and understand that energy is the base commodity for everything we eat wear or use.
Getting smacked square in the face with sky high utility bills may provide the wake up call our Australian friends need to wake up. Lets hope so.
The political parties in US, Canada, Europe, Australia, told people clearly what they were going to do: eliminate fossil fuel and replace with renewables. The voters elected them and now the parties are delivering on their promises.
As long as the voters keep electing them the economic decline, the reduction in the standard of living, will continue.
There is little evidence the voters will change how they vote. This is unlikely to end well.
“ The voters elected them..”
Maybe they did? In the US, I guess, Joe got the most votes ever…imagine that? Kamala was even smoking him in primaries…strange indeed. I guess Joe won Iowa when they gave up electronic vote counting…strangest thing I had ever seen next to Russia colluuuusion.
In Canada, baby boomers who might be expected to vote Conservative as they age have voted Liberal all their lives. They are terrified that more centre or right governments might cut back on enormously expensive free health care that they have come to depend on for their survival. Few have saved enough to contribute even modest co-payments for all the expensive goodies they have come to expect as a right….and what they paid for other, older people to have in their turn. It is the only Canadian institution that Canadians have any lingering respect for, but only because it’s free. All the Liberals have to do to keep getting re-elected is to raise the spectre of “America-style healthcare” and the sheep fall into line, cheerfully mortgaging their children’s future so they can get free hip surgery. If they have to make an electoral choice between free health care and energy security, they will pick free health care even as the lights start to go out.
Yes, I’m doing what I can but there is so much illiteracy out there.
And I just got my first check in the main, $540, from the government, for climate payback to help with rising costs.
“Climate Action Incentive Payment”.
Previously there was a tax credit but that didn’t clearly ingratiate voters to Justin so they switched to cutting checks directly instead.
So they create and increase the carbon tax plus drive up the cost of everything, plus drive up inflation throwing out free money, and the solution is more free money?
People are so stupid.
Eric and others.
I am very sceptical of Australian Solar figures. I cant seem to reconcile them.
The government provides postcode data for solar installations.
https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/RET/Forms-and-resources/Postcode-data-for-small-scale-installations
For my postcode there is supposed to be 1000+ fully solar averaging 4kw.
From a simple check of aerial photos it looks like less than 500 units.
Is someone ripping off the government?
If you are using google maps the aerial shots might not be up to date, and they might not be counting removals. A lot of solar systems fail within a few years, I was renting a house a while ago where everything failed within 6 months, after the possums chewed all the cables.
I hope you got a rent reduction Eric?
And a visit from Peter The Possum Man?
Sri Lanka was too small a oountry to excite the world to the problems with CC diktats. Australia is the crash test dummy for larger countries. So far they’ve exceeded the expectations of those that doubted the ability for them to replace fossil fuels with renewables. Let’s see how far down that rabbit hole they’ll go.
Bring it on, the only ones we can blame at this point is the ignorant voter who keeps electing these mongrels. It is clear the politicians, administrators and bureaucrats are lying and cheating and have been for a long time. If you don’t do something to rein in these power terrorists it is your own fault.
Not to mention, should a so called Liberal Western Government take to effectively Nationalizing private assets, the impact on incoming investment Capital, not to mention the risk premium demanded by that Capital, would throw an icy cold wet blanket over growth prospects. Does Albo really want to be known as the Nasser of Oceania?
State governments that have demolished power stations and banned new gas extraction need to go to the back of the queue … ‘fossil’ fuel power from Queensland is being diverted to those states artificially creating shortages and forcing up costs in Queensland.
You dug your hole now you swim in your solar and wind powered quagmire.
There is merit in those involved in energy policy reading old texts like Adam Smith “Wealth of Nations” and “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand and “The Apocalyptics” by Edith Efron. That might help AEMO people consider past wisdom before forecasting.
If, as it seems, AEMO failed to.forecast the present huge electricity price increases, how can it be judged to predict Australia’s optimum energy mix a decade from now?
Has AEMO failed its first hard test? So soon after it was formed? Does not portend well.
Geoff S
Renewables have nothing to do with saving the planet and everything to do with racketeering and destroying western economies.
Which Western economies have they destroyed?
Go observe the panic in Germany.
They used to have cheap reliable power, now they don’t.
B follows A
That is logic.
The reasons gven for price rises are here:
extremely high international prices for traded gas and thermal coal
Reduced availability of coal-fired generation, due to scheduled maintenance as well as long- and short duration forced outages, driving high levels of gas-fired generation, which both raised electricity prices and put pressure on local gas markets.
“Physical fuel supply and hydrological constraints at a number of thermal and hydro generators, which further limited their operational flexibility.”
I don’t see any upward price trend from renewables in there. In fact I would say that those many Australians with solar panels are feeling the price rises a lot less and that the grid scale batteries are having a positive effect on prices.
griff go and read some of Professor Helms essays on his website and you will see why unreliables force prices up. Hint, you need backup available all the time for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine but the cost of that backup is itself greatly increased by the intermittency of unreliables.
I will remind you that Prof Helm is by no means a sceptic as regards climate change but he is an acknowledged expert on energy policy.
Open up your mind.
http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk
(By the way, do you know John Sauven?)
Griff
Before renewables penetration power was cheap and reliable.
Government policy has forced renewables into the market and now power is expensive and unreliable.
A follows B.
And no, I don’t expect you to get it.
Yes, I know I’m wasting my time.
The idiots that are trying to force EV’s are the same idiots who are destroying reliable power production at every turn. How dumb is that?
I have concluded that this piece of information cannot possibly be repeated often enough:
On July 10, 2019, the Washington Post Magazine quoted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ then-chief of staff saying they did not see the Green New Deal as “a climate thing” but rather as “a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.” :
Forget climate. It isn’t even marginally involved. The beginning, middle, and end of all the renewable energy magical thinking is about installing a Soviet-style command-and-control economy. If you doubt that, ask yourself why nobody is really eager to participate in the “energy transition” except the corporate interests who line up solely to collect the taxpayer-funded subsidies and the big-government bureaucrats and elected hustlers passing the subsidies out. Oh, and of course a generation or so of indoctrinated children who have been systematically shielded from any instruction about how any of this actually works…
This is a necessary, and I hope, sufficient precursor to taking our freedoms back.
in the US we have politicians literally saying they will not allow drilling for oil because oil is too expensive