…Nick Cager writes the NSW electricity system was in crisis last week. Liquid fuel generators were turned on, batteries were drained and sluice valves were released to ramp up….
Doug Sheridan writes…
Doug Sheridan writes…
Per the Australian, Nick Cager writes the NSW electricity system was in crisis last week. Liquid fuel generators were turned on, batteries were drained and sluice valves were released to ramp up output from the turbines. Meanwhile, officials implored households to ease the strain by delaying the start of their dishwashers, dryers and washing machines.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) needed to find 690MW of spare capacity in case the largest generation source in NSW should crash. By 5.30pm, however, it had only managed to muster 678MW. At 1800 hours and 52 seconds, AEMO hit the panic button and issued an Actual Lack of Reserve Level 2 notice for NSW, the highest category of alert short of an actual blackout.
In summary, the electricity grid in an economically sophisticated First World capital was on the brink of collapse on a hot day for the want of a miserly 12MW of power. The great energy transition, which looked so good on the spreadsheets, is turning into a chaotic, multifaceted omni-shambles on an unprecedented scale.
Billions of dollars of capital that could have built roads, schools and hospitals, or been productively invested in profitable business have been grievously misallocated into projects that are neither economically nor technically feasible.
Capital is becoming scarcer, and the appetite for increasing risk is diminishing. Taxpayers will be obliged to provide a larger share of the investment either directly or by underwriting loans.
To Sum It Up 1: Australia's energy market planners are gripped by baseload denialism, the delusion that if you connect enough wind turbines and solar panels, things will be just fine. When the grid comes under pressure, as it did in NSW last week, the truth emerges.
To Sum It Up 2: For all its supposed expertise, AEMO has yet to persuade the sun to remain comfortably above the horizon for more than 12 hours a day in mid-December. Nor has it convinced the wind to blow more consistently or the clouds to stop casting shadows over silicon-covered suburban rooftops at inconvenient moments.
Our Take: Western(ized) gov'ts are, one by one, finding out just how flimsy is the math driving the vaunted energy transition. The first to be slapped in the face with the reality was Europe and the UK. North America will be next, as the trillions spent by gov'ts are revealed to be underpinned by hyped projections and misunderstood economics. Next up will be Australia, which simply isn't far enough along to see that even its vast resource base can't change the calculus and physics of it all.
#australia #energytransition #electricity