No power!!!

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Originally Posted by AndrewJ

Gday Bob
Another one that people dont think about ( cos they were designed to just work ) are the sewers.
Many in some areas are apparently getting close to limits at times.
But one more interesting thing i heard on the radio this morning is that the average age of local linesmen is now getting into the mid 50s.
Since privatisation, the qty of apprentices being trained in all the required areas has dropped through the floorboards.
The old SECV had the commercial mass and social obligation to take on and fully train thousands of apprentices each year.
Very few companies working for profit these days want to take on even one apprentice and cant train them in all aspects of the system.
I guess thats why we have 457 visas

Andrew

Ha, Ha Andrew. I never thought of the sewers.

Yes apprentices: Unfortunately in this era of expecting Public institutions to be competitive like private enterprise, they act like private enterprise, which means few or no apprentices.

Businesses like to free load, thus the 457 visas. Luckerly, slavery has been abolished, although even with this, some businesses are finding ways around it.

[AndrewJ]

Gday Bob

Ha, Ha Andrew. I never thought of the sewers.

Most dont think about the stuff that just works.
They just assume living in a city is a simple exercise
ie Stuff into the body just "appears" in shops and you just press a button on a white thing and the nasty stuff out goes away.
IIRC, Gough Whitlam, when asked what some of his best achievements were, mentioned getting proper sewerage into his local area.
No plaques or big statues, jsus something that needed to be done.
What we need is more people like Joseph Bazalgette and less Pollies who have no idea.
Ie Joseph knew how to get rid of poo in a proper manner
vs our pollies who can now only throw it.

Andrew

[el_draco (Rom)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

No power cuts this year in SA so far I am very happy to report. And; I read that we have been exporting quite a bit over the last couple of weeks to Victoria. Another couple of batteries, a solar thermal unit or three and we should be looking good and remove the last remaining diesel and gas units. Yes SA had a bad year in 2016 but the state government got on with trying to sort the problem (I am not a fan of this government but I give them credit for getting on with doing something about stabilising the system in SA). It's not going be the same model every where in Australia but there needs to be more work on stabilising the entire system. Renewables is the way of the future and Australia has to get on with the task. Coal and gas have to go. Why is it that humans will not budge until the very last moment before catastrophe occurs? I would say this is a win for renewables and some alternative thinking, I imagine Weatherill would be doing the odd fist pump this morning when he got up. A little vindicated.

Bang on! and dead right! I just cant wait to hear the crap that pours out of Turncoats face. The change to renewables should have started decades ago when the problem of global warming was identified. People don't change until a near catastrophe occurs because vested interests want to keep their dividends coming in from fossil fuels as long as possible, that includes our so called bloody leaders. Elections coming folks... remember it when you vote!

[el_draco (Rom)]

Originally Posted by AndrewJ

Gday Bob
Another one that people dont think about ( cos they were designed to just work ) are the sewers.
Many in some areas are apparently getting close to limits at times.
But one more interesting thing i heard on the radio this morning is that the average age of local linesmen is now getting into the mid 50s.
Since privatisation, the qty of apprentices being trained in all the required areas has dropped through the floorboards.
The old SECV had the commercial mass and social obligation to take on and fully train thousands of apprentices each year.
Very few companies working for profit these days want to take on even one apprentice and cant train them in all aspects of the system.
I guess thats why we have 457 visas

Andrew

... and you are also dead right. Our idiot leaders are stuck using the perpetual growth economic model but they neglect to note that population growth only ADDS to our problems. More people means more infrastructure and they pay for the maintenance/repair/ upgrade/replacement of the infrastructure they build by.... trying to increase the population.

Its a no brainer and I am watching it happen in Tassie right now. Millions upon millions spent on new roads because our dumb pollies have been conning people to come down from the mainland. Alas, rental prices are now so high that young locals cant live in Hobart and they want to add another 150,000 people to the population... They neglect to take into account the lack of jobs, housing and infrastructure to support the population growth.... Fark sake!

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Originally Posted by mynameiscd

Especially when you here false statements about "base load" and how solar wind can never achieve this "base load" (start up and holding voltage coal fired need to run at).

Elon Musk just proved how quick a large battery bank can help take the pressure off SA..
Link up 3,000,000 homes with batteries in each and the need for base load drops dramatically.
A bit in the future but not that far if we have a committed federal government.

Ive only been back on the grid for about a year now and here we get power outages all the time and only when we have hot nights like this so I know how you feel.
Our last house ( off grid ) we had 7 years of no outages but plenty of dim nights and generators running which you sort of get used to.
There has to be somewhere in between
Keep cool

Power outages like this are due to the distribution system not being able to cope. Nothing at all to do with wind/hydro/whatever...

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I agree....Hazlewood could still have been running and we’d still be without power.

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

I agree that the whole 1950s power system needs to be upgraded but who's going to pay?
With batteries as base load the infrastructure needs to be updated but as a tradeoff the need for high voltage transmission over long distances will be greatly reduced therefore more community based power generation and power control will be needed.
If a problem arises it would be very localized rather that major grid problems.
I know this all sounds a bit utopian but its a future grid rather than generating way excess power then transport it vast distances and do the juggling routine between suppliers who gives what and when.
No wonder infrastructure fails under peak demand.
But who's going to pay is the real question as power generation and storage becomes more localized, and cheaper and better technology comes, the business of power generation will not be as viable for large international companies to be in

Just my 2 cents worth......
Is that round down or round up?

Andy

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

I agree....Hazlewood could still have been running and we’d still be without power.

Ken if I were you rather than wait for the problem to be fixed by others I would get a genny that will run a get by system...
Air con will be the problem but you could probably get something that could take care of your bedroom and a tv in there.
I just have a feeling back outs ( anyone remember that term) may become the norm and complaining wont keep you cool.
When I passed out a month ago it was no doubt heat stroke so no power starts to become a life and death matter.
Alex

[xelasnave]

I am thinking of a genny and a power lead, not into the house system, but to an air con, fridge and tv or lappy.

Alex

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

Moving from an off grid house for 7 years to being in the western Victoria grid we're going to get used to powercorp blackouts.
We haven't had any panels installed yet but even then without storage no power anyway.
We've got the old 7.8 kva genie ( bit noisy ) but enough backup if power managed.
An electrian can hard wire the genie to the board and even put a switch that can autostart when the grid goes off.
We still haven't had this done yet but I think after this weekend we might get it hooked up.
Cheers
Andy

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Hmmm
The guy next door has solar panels... but when the power went off so did they!!!
No great gain there.....

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Alex,
I lived "off grid" up at Heathcote for the best part of ten years - me and my Honda generator.
I know exactly what it can be like!

[bigjoe (JOSEPH)]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

Here in the Bellarine, Vic, PowerCor have advised we will have no power until after midnight!!!!
We’ve been out since teatime and it’s stinking hot.......
Bet we don’t get a refund from them....

Ken...
Here in Concord only a few yrs ago power went out in atrocious heat here...all the shops restaurants, butchers, cafes , takeaways, cake shops etc ......all had their food , fresh stock all in a molten mess....... did they get compensated ..do I need to tell the answer..

Some lost thousands each on customers not coming through the doors as well....refunds ... unlikely!

bigjoe

[baileys2611 (Simon Bailey)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

No power cuts this year in SA so far I am very happy to report. And; I read that we have been exporting quite a bit over the last couple of weeks to Victoria. Another couple of batteries, a solar thermal unit or three and we should be looking good and remove the last remaining diesel and gas units. Yes SA had a bad year in 2016 but the state government got on with trying to sort the problem (I am not a fan of this government but I give them credit for getting on with doing something about stabilising the system in SA). It's not going be the same model every where in Australia but there needs to be more work on stabilising the entire system. Renewables is the way of the future and Australia has to get on with the task. Coal and gas have to go. Why is it that humans will not budge until the very last moment before catastrophe occurs? I would say this is a win for renewables and some alternative thinking, I imagine Weatherill would be doing the odd fist pump this morning when he got up. A little vindicated.

Nnnng! I wish I had a battery backup system like you guys do. Now THAT's forward thinking thanks to Elon. Our power in Murrumbateman fluctuates wildly, I just know that if a storm is nearby to turn off the sensitive equipment or it will be shutoff suddenly and probably violently.

Problem is though, our national Science Minister is so advanced that they are weightless, side-less, bottomless, see-through and still evolving (re-shuffle in December saw a decline in that respect). SA is at least spruiking that they are advanced and attracting private investment to continue the trend but that's the kicker, the commercial model is geared away from fixing the system.

There's something wrong with the economy where we are reliant on fossil fuels and production based efficiencies to achieve growth.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

No smart battery or new power station fuel by solar etc would have prevented our blackout.....
The distribution system failed, not the generators......

[AndrewJ]

I wish I had a battery backup system like you guys do.

If i understand it correctly, the battery in SA wont actually "supply" power to keep very much running for very long.
If i read it correctly, Its main aim is to act like a huge shock absorber, that allows the grid to stay stable during odd events that otherwise would make it trip out.
I reckon the future will be more small batteries distributed throughout the suburbs. Whenever there is excess power, the existing grid can recharge them, and at peak times, they can drain to keep the local power draw low.

Andrew

[baileys2611 (Simon Bailey)]

Yes! Absolutely agree re a distributed supply.