Thanks to Wind and Solar, Australian’s Power is Unreliable and Unaffordable

by Rudy P. SysAdmin at howtofindthemoney

A warm spell across Australia this week – with temperatures in the 40°C range – has seen the demand for electricity hit the roof.

Across South Australia, Victoria, NSW and Queensland air-conditioners have been cranked into furious action to cool homes and businesses, and refrigerated systems are working overtime to keep produce and other perishables cool and saleable.

This perfectly predictable spike in demand has coincided with perfectly predictable total collapses in wind and solar output: a week of near breathless days killing off output from the former and sunset merrily dealing with the latter.

As STT has pointed out once or twice before, pin your power needs to the weather and expect results to vary.

Last summer saw mass load shedding and blackouts across Victoria, South Australia and NSW, when spikes in demand combined with collapses in wind and solar output.

Daily demand patterns are as predictable as the delivery of wind and solar are chaotic.

Instead of admitting that wind and solar are integral to Australia’s power pricing and supply calamity, the intelligentsia are telling us that we simply need to do without. Third World power rationing – aka “demand management” – is the witless response to a disaster brought to unwitting Australians by the witless. And this in a country that was once an energy superpower, with the cheapest power prices, in the world.

JoNova takes a look at what, for sweltering Australians, must surely be ‘peak stupid’.

What do we call it when the State turns off your air conditioner? A “Peaksmart” moment

You can’t make this stuff up.

The Government advertising bureau — the ABC — is telling Queenslanders that it’s good for them if the government switches off their air conditioning.

As we pay more than ever for electricity, we also lose control of even our household appliances. If we get something back for the overpriced service, the propaganda unit calls this a payment, and a benefit.

If you have a Christmas party and 30 guests and you can’t use your own air conditioner, don’t forget, the State knows best. If it causes “whitenoise” interference, adds one more failure point, or causes people to turn their air conditioners down in temperature preemptively, or program them to come on earlier, who cares?

If the ABC says something is smart, we know it’s …

Power companies will soon be paying you to cut your energy use

Stephen Long, ABC

The units installed on the walls of his apartment look the same as any other air conditioners, but there is a difference. They’re fitted with “PeakSmart” technology. It allows the electricity network company to send a signal that turns the air conditioning down for a short while during times of peak demand when the network is feeling the strain. “We cycle down the compressor, which is what creates the cooling part of the air conditioner,” says Peter Price, an executive general manager at Energy Queensland.

It’s a miracle, who needs electrons? Every day the ABC undoes something the education system tried to teach children.

“It cycles down for 20 minutes. The fan still runs, blowing out cold air. Customers don’t know that we’ve done that, but it pulls down the peak demand enough to make a difference.”

Mr Casey got a rebate that covered about half the cost of installing the air conditioners, and he’s a happy customer.

“We’ve not noticed a thing,” he tells the ABC.

About 100,000 Queensland houses already have these installed. Gone are the luxury days when consumers could control their own appliances, get cheap reliable electricity, and not need invasive, complicated schemes in order to keep some of their own money.

Demand response is coming, nationwide

Soon the rest of the nation will get a taste of what the Sunshine State has pioneered, but in an even more sophisticated form.

‘Wholesale demand response’ is coming, and it’s set to revolutionise the electricity system.

“It will be the biggest reform ever in the history of the National Electricity Network,” says Dan Cass, the energy policy lead at The Australia Institute.

The ABC appears to be writing for ten year olds.

Demand response could allow coal plants to close early

The flow-on benefits are enormous.

Enormous benefits for who? The international conglomerate renewable giants? The bureaucrats whose jobs depend on selling and managing your air conditioner use?

Most of the time Australia does not need all of the electricity that its mix of coal, gas, solar, wind and hydroelectricity is capable of supplying.

Effectively, the nation builds massive overcapacity compared to electricity demand in ordinary times to avoid power disruption on a small minority of extreme days when there is huge demand.

Effectively, the nation has paid to build an enormous overcapacity that can’t be relied upon in the hope of stopping storms and bushfires.

Our entire gird generation is being doubled so half the infrastructure can run 20 – 30% of the time while the other half sits around like a deadweight costing staff, maintenance, land, and capital.

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