‘Dirty’ coal, gas and diesel still providing bulk of Victoria, SA electricity needs

By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
STATISTICS from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) at 7.35am on January 23rd show South Australia’s much vaunted renewable energy system is still not living up to its claims. If it’s an example for the rest of the country to follow, we will be in dire economic straits.

Production of electricity from within the state is falling well short of demand again, making the state reliant on gas burning, a bank of diesel generators and imported electricity from Victoria that comes mostly from the three coal-fired power stations in the LaTrobe Valley.

And thanks to a boardroom dominated by net-zero intelligence, the energy company AGL announced in 2022 it would close one of those Victorian energy plants, Loy Yang A, in 2035, 10 years earlier than planned. The same imbeciles also plan to close their Bayswater plant in the Hunter Valley between 2030 and 2033 and want everyone to know that in so doing they really are saving the planet.

In South Australia a massive 64% of the electricity was being suppied on the morning of the 23^rd from gas-burning generators and another 9% from the state’s bank of big diesel generators of the type that are normally used at mining or remote construction sites.

AEMO euphemistically calls diesel “liquid fuel”, a term which of course is less likely to spark panic or outrage among the ranks of hysterical climate cultists, the dim-witted cheer squad for the thoroughly stupified corporate class of Davos.

South Australia’s famous Tesla battery was suppling another 9% of electricity needs at the time, although this is usually a very short-term stop-gap or fill-in measure when supply from some other part of the system fails to deliver. With the sun rising, solar farms were delivering only 1%, although this would rise upwards sharply into the day, depending on weather.

The state’s heavily subsidised wind turbine farms were delivering a reasonable 17% of supply, which again, can be highly variable, depending on wind velocity. On a still morning, that figure could be zero and to get those giant blades turning again requires power input.

In Victoria, which like NSW and Queensland has been rushing madly into renewables, brown coal from Loy Yang A & B plus Yallourn power stations were delivering 71% of the state’s power needs in the high-demand period on the same morning at 7.35am.

The state’s battery system at Moorabool Terminal Station, just outside Geelong, which has 300MW of capacity and is the biggest such system in Australia, was shown to be delivering no electricity at the time. With three giant coal-fired power stations powering the state and beyond, there’s no need for fill-ins when the renewables inevitably fade or break down.

Victoria’s growing arrays of subsidised wind farms were supplying 17% of the power while solar recorded zero. It must have been a cloudy morning. The only other active supply was from hydro at 12%. No gas was being burned but given that the Labor-Green wreckers of Victoria have demonized it and want to ban it from domestic use, maybe that’s not surprising.

The official State Government website for the big battery notes it is “owned and operated by renewable energy specialist Neoen. It can store enough energy to power more than one million Victorian homes for 30 minutes.” In other words, like South Australia’s battery, it is a stop-gap system that can prevent regional blackouts for short periods.

The real trouble begins when a coal-fired generator breaks down, and given that companies like AGL are skimping on maintenance, the risk of that occurring is greatly increased. But why would we worry now that gee-whizz battery can fill in for an entire 30 minutes?

The other claimed big benefit of the battery is that for three months between November and March it enables increased flows of up to 250MW over the Victoria-New South Wales interconnector. This apparently reduces the risk of unscheduled load shedding during summer.

What is not mentioned on the website is the fire at the facility during testing in 2021. Two of the sites Megapacks caught on fire and had to burn themselves out, which they did after six hours because such fires cannot be put out. Local residents had to be warned to stay inside because of toxic fumes from the fire.

* The AEMO figures are from a peak period time but during the day can vary greatly as do the prices paid by power companies under the so-called free-market energy supply system.