Sooner or later, whatever is unsustainable will break. Meet the QLD energy grid:
The Australian Energy Market Operator has warned it has a lack of reserve electricity generation to meet record high demand in Queensland amid hot and humid weather.
…While Australia’s traditional generators have been amply supported by renewables, AEMO said demand for electricity in Queensland hit a record high on Monday afternoon.
…The state’s high penetration of rooftop solar will mean the grid has ample sources of electricity for much of the day, but AEMO said it was about 400MW shy of sufficient reserves during the evening peak when solar generation will rapidly subside.
Here’s what the grid looked like as the sun went down yesterday. Gas surged into the solar gap:
And the price went from $50MWh $10k MWh!
This is poetic justice for a gormless state that has the deepest and cheapest terrestrial gas reserves on the Australian continent but sold them all to an export cartel that sends most of it to China.
Without a second thought for domestic reservation such as that practised in WA, which has the cheapest power on the continent.
I typically have a lot of time for my bogan northern neighbours. But that is spectacular stupidity and/or corruption.
Sadly, there is no end in sight. If you want a decarbonised grid, you will need gas as firming power for another decade at least. But Australia (and QLD in particular) has so little that it pays a 1200%+ mark-up on cash costs.
Today, the US has gas at $3Gj because it has domestic reservation. Europe has little gas but can get it at $11.20Gj export net-back. North Asia has even less gas but can buy it at $12.50Gj export net-back.
Poor old QLD, which digs it up for less than $1Gj, is paying $12Gj and every time there is a heat wave, its grid breaks:
QLD is being cooked by gas.
