The Aussie gas spot price remains ridiculous at $12Gj:
This has not been a problem during shoulder energy season. Renewables have been strong and demand soft, meaning we’ve been using only about 2% gas capacity in the National Electricity Market.
However, the moment demand rises and renewables ease, gas surges back to more like 6% of production, as it has in the last week:
And NEM prices spike:
Worse, the looming summer is running a grid gauntlet:
Australia’s energy system faces a once-in-a-decade spike in electricity demand this summer – as well as an increased bushfire risk and extreme heat – as the country’s market operator warned the system cannot afford any unexpected outages or supply shocks.
…The AEMO said it is also bolstered by additional capacity as major generators return to operations. The market operator said an extra 1500MW of scheduled generation will be online this summer compared to the previous one, and it now expects an extra 2000MW generation capacity from new wind and solar projects will be available.
The additional capacity will largely come from Queensland and NSW, with several significant generators on course to complete repairs and maintenance.
…The Callide C power station, one of Queensland’s largest coal power plants, is on course to come back in January, the plant’s operator said earlier this year, while AGL Energy’s Bayswater and Origin Energy’s Eraring coal power stations are both set to return to full capacity after units were taken offline for required maintenance.
Note the hilarity of it. As the Albanese Government refuses to regulate the gas cartel properly, gas-firming power remains badly comprised as a replacement for coal.
So, as renewable capacity keeps growing, state governments are madly renovating and subsidising old coal power plants – Callide in QLD and Eraring in NSW – to support the transition to no coal.
The coal plants are spectacularly inefficient for the job because they cannot turn on and off to offset intermittent renewables.
Thus they lose money hand over fist in government ownership or must pay gouging subsidies to private owners.
Energy revolution Australian style.
