Via Domainfax:
Australians can safely keep their air conditioners blasting during the summer’s heatwaves after energy operators found extra power to cover shortfalls.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has identified almost 2000 megawatts of extra power, which it says will replace the 1600 MW that went off line when Victoria’s Hazelwood power station closed in March.
“I am absolutely confident that AEMO has put together an incredibly comprehensive and robust plan, and that we’ve taken all the right actions and we are in as good a position as one could be going into a summer,” AEMO chief executive Audrey Zibelman told Reuters.
“Clearly, given the events of last summer there is heightened awareness and heightened anxiety. We all need to calm down,” Zibelman said.
…South Australia has taken emergency steps to boost its own power supply, including buying diesel-fired generators and getting Tesla to build a 129 megawatt hour lithium ion battery, set to be switched on soon.
At the same time, three gas-fired power plants in South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania which had been mothballed have been switched back on, adding 833 MW of capacity.
And a programme to add reserves and pay big power users to cut their demand will make 1,150 MW available, including state-owned diesel generators in South Australia and Victoria.
So, a fictional problem has been solved. The issue was never Hazelwood. It was always the price of gas. And now the deals have been done. But at what cost?
Gas contract prices benchmarked at export net back are still at around $12Gj, up 400% in three years. State governments are subsidising loss making gas exports via dying pensioners. Households are getting killed in part thanks to the energy shock. Factories are closing for the same reason.
The Curtis Island cartel has given an inch so that blackouts are stopped and the epic gouge can go on in plain sight. More gas and power price increases are coming in the New Year.
Nothing has been resolved.
