SA power - a plan at last

[clive milne]

Originally Posted by sn1987a

The energy market is an Enron style racket. Actually the whole economy is based on racketeering, scams and swindles. Especially banks, insurance, education, food, 457s, telecommunications - everything! .

Yep... rotten to the core, and I would add big pharma', the military, NGO's, religious institutions, media and the 'truther' industrial complex to the list as well.

I wonder if Orwell realised that Animal farm would be used as an instruction manual?

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Originally Posted by clive milne

Yep... rotten to the core, and I would add big pharma', the military, NGO's, religious institutions, media and the 'truther' industrial complex to the list as well.

I wonder if Orwell realised that Animal farm would be used as an instruction manual?

Nineteen Eighty Four just keeps adding one accurate prediction after another to the list.
The foresight of someone that long ago predicting the omnipresent CCTV and political correctness of today is just staggering.

[clive milne]

Ben, you might enjoy the works of the SF writer, Fred Bester.

Another author with astounding prescience.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

the SA govt is not hanging around. Battery EOI invited by end of March and to be operational by next summer. http://www.premier.sa.gov.au/index.p...argest-battery

apparently we have enough of a budget surplus and allocated funds to pay for the new plan - that surprised me. http://servicesa.cdn.on.net/mybr2016...w_measures.pdf

[clive milne]

Originally Posted by Shiraz

apparently we have enough of a budget surplus and allocated funds to pay for the new plan -

You guys have a budget surplus?

I think it says something for the pack of crooks and cretins who have been governing WA. Arguably the most resource rich state, in the most resource rich country in the world... during an unprecedented resource sector boom, and we are collectively driven to sell the silverware and dismantle the social infrastructure of the state, to pay the interest on the debt accumulated over the last decade...

I'm curious... (forgive me the rhetorical question)
But, you know the cash that was borrowed in our name? ... or more accurately, the financial institutions that lent it to us?
How did they create that wealth in the first place?... what tangible thing did they actually ever bring in to this world other than debt?

[AndrewJ]

what tangible thing did they actually ever bring in to this world other than debt?

The promise of "future" profits/benefits, just like the housing boom.
( I think of it as similar to long / short selling on the stock market )
Those in the know up front make a quick profit whilst the pollies are too busy congratulating themselves
and the rest ( ie us ) cop it in the neck later ( Think East West contract in Melb ) )

Andrew

[Shiraz (Ray)]

a final word perhaps http://reneweconomy.com.au/clarke-an...-debate-28852/

[sn1987a (Barry)]

Scams, scams, scams, scams, scams, scams, scams, egg and scams!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-1...claims/8361198

[AndrewJ]

Dont worry, the abcc will sort it all out

Andrew

[JA]

Originally Posted by sn1987a

Scams, scams, scams, scams, scams, scams, scams, egg and scams!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-1...claims/8361198

Thank you for sharing that Barry.

It is utterly and thoroughly disgusting that a corporation/s could take advantage of people like that and/or that the employer could be so stupid or ignorant as to not recognize the changed insurance implications of an employee going from permanent to casual. Someone, be it the insurer or employer, SHOULD BE MADE to support the injured person, according to the reasonable expectations they would have had of the insurance policy that they had been paying for.

Sorry
JA

[Shiraz (Ray)]

According to a couple of sites, this could possibly be the type of gas generator being considered for SA. http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...ge-Gas-Turbine

Key features are an integrated battery that will provide instantaneous power and also keep the turbine spinning without using any fuel, so that it can be on line almost instantaneously. The turbines can run on a variety of fuels, so presumably an onsite backup reserve of LPG could be available in case somebody decides to play silly buggers with mains gas availability - or if mains gas is not available at a chosen site (if this class of system is used, there would need to be ~5 of them placed across the state).

If they can't get something in place quickly, apparently the plan is to bring in temporary generators (possibly even diesel, as in Tasmania) to help get through until next summer, until some new gas capability comes on line - seems that everything is on the table now that the decision has been taken to reduce reliance on the national market players.
EDIT: pity extra generators are not around already - AEMO is forecasting that power prices will spike to $14,000/Mwh tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) - PV will be doing well, but wind is in the doldrums and it will be a hot day. https://www.aemo.com.au/Electricity/...Data-dashboard

[clive milne]

"Humor! Ark Ark!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_C8S4Bz91M

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Now is this an indictment of the privatised generators or what?

Quote form our PM, the emphasis is mine'

The company has decided to close it because the cost of making it safe — the cost of paying for the long-deferred maintenance and to meet work safety requirements — runs into many hundreds of millions of dollars, even to keep it operating after June 30

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Originally Posted by The_bluester

Now is this an indictment of the privatised generators or what?

Quote form our PM, the emphasis is mine'

that is scary Paul and is an admission that something is very wrong.

SA has gone the way it has because the national market is now run under similar ethics - power companies have no incentive to either plan for the future (nobody knows what the politics of that might be??) or to ensure that the power is provided when and where it is needed. Instead, they are moving us towards an "Enron" style market, where screwing the customer with dubious strategic outages and plant shutdowns is the way to maximise shareholder value.

The key event in motivating the SA pollies seems to have been a recent refusal by the Pelican Point operators to activate unused capacity in their plant - resulting in brownout conditions in the State. The reason was that they would have had to buy gas on the spot market to do so - ie they would not have made enough money to make it worthwhile. Can't blame them - making money is their sole aim - and that is the crux of the problem from a customer viewpoint.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

Well the SA gov't sure stirred the pot.

Now the French company Engie has announced that, having closed their Hazelwood coal fired plant in Victoria, they will spend $40m to refurbish a gas powered generator at Pelican Point in SA and bring another 240MW onto the grid.

In addition, Lyon Group has announced that it plans to have a 330MW solar + 440MWh battery system operating at Morgan in the SA Riverland by Christmas - in addition to a previously announced 100MW solar/200MWh battery project at the BHP Olympic Dam mine in SA. The Riverland solar farm is claimed to be the biggest in the world, with 3.4million solar panels and 1.1 million batteries.

finally, stuff is happening. Seems that all it needed was for somebody - anybody - to put forward a coherent plan - any plan - for the future.

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Originally Posted by The_bluester

Now is this an indictment of the privatised generators or what?

Quote form our PM, the emphasis is mine'

No. It's a business decision that spending hundreds of millions of dollars to slightly extend the lifespan of an end of life generator is not logical.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

No, if true it was a business decision to underspend on maintenance over the long term to boost profits and then when the plant an equipment gets to the point where the maintenance simply has to be done, shut it down instead having already booked enlarged profits over a period of years by "Deferring" the maintenance.

I.E. the PM accused them of not doing what would have been planned maintenance in order to make bigger profits, then shutting it down when the crunch came maintenance wise.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Somewhat ambiguously spoken by the PM (Who would have thunk it, a pollie blaming a company for doing something but doing it in such a way as he can later claim that this was not in fact the case if pressed) this version of the quote is lifted straight from the PM's own page.

The company has decided to close it because the cost of making it safe, the cost of paying for the long-deferred maintenance and to meet work safety requirements runs into many hundreds of millions of dollars, even to keep it operating after the 30th of June. So that's the reason for the commercial decision.

https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2017-03-...n-birmingham-0

With no one, Engie or otherwise ever likely to give a breakdown, people will have to decide for themselves how to apportion the costs between OH&S requirements (Hardly new or are there new and onerous OH&S rules coming into force in July?) "Making it safe" (Isn't that sailing close to the same thing or was there a risk of the thing exploding and causing damage and injury to members of the public rather than staff?) and "paying for the long-deferred maintenance"

[drylander (Peter)]

Problem solved here. My house now has a generator installed with the appropriate electrical fittings so I don't care if the power goes out. Don't trust the gov. SA or federal or the big businesses jumping on the bandwagon to get anything right. If they hadn't sold it to private companies we wouldn't be having this problem.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Actually I am thinking of getting the same done. Having been without mains for the best part of a week after a bushfire a few years ago it would be very useful to be able to plug in the gen we bought afterwards to power everything (within the limits of the generator of course)

Running things off extension cords from the gen we were lucky not to find our septic system literally dead in the water when mains was restored. Power from the gen via the normal distribution board would have fixed that.