Another educational day in the National Electricity Market yesterday. The wind stopped blowing in SA, gas-fired power roared into the gap:
And the power price soared 200%:
This is the real problem in the NEM. It is not the need for renewables, which is coming anyway.
It is in need of a reliable form of firming power when renewables drop out.
A vicious cartel controls gas.
Clean alternatives such as batteries are economical at the grid and even neighbourhood scale but are given no substantial policy support at either centralised or decentralised levels.
Until this problem is addressed, coal cannot come out of the grid without renewed power price shocks. This means coal is no longer coming out as state governments panic about looming shocks.
Ironically, an accelerated, decentralised, clean firming energy rollout will mean we need less centralised renewable build-out and associated infrastructure, which is where Albo is pissing away your time and money.
Yet another of his mounting failures.
