Last week as Sydney faced the prospect of large-scale blackouts, the Premier, Chris Minns, told people that “Solar production in the energy market starts to come off at 3pm … so if you could not use your pool filter, dishwasher, or washing machine between 3pm and 8pm, you’d be helping the grid.”
While Mr Minns is a supporter of the current energy “transition” plans, he usefully summed up the mess they have left our country in. We are a land blessed with energy resources.
Australia, per person, has more coal, gas, uranium and renewable resources than anywhere on the planet.
Not since the days of Old Sydney Town have Australians had to regulate their energy needs based on the weather.
Our newfound energy poverty is all the result of decisions not of destiny.
For the past 15 years or so we have had governments that have decided to run a big experiment.
How high can you push solar and wind energy and still maintain a functioning energy market.
The current government wants to take Australia to 82 per cent renewable energy which is around double what we have now.
If we can’t run our dishwasher in the afternoon when we rely on just 40 per cent of renewable energy, what will happen when we try to double that.
Since the near miss in Sydney last week, the governments that are backing renewable energy have been desperately blaming coal fired power.
Last week there were four coal fired power units out, three for regular maintenance and one for unplanned reasons.
It was hot last week but not unexpectedly so.
The last week of November is just a week before summer.
On 25 November 1982, the temperature hit 41.8 degrees celsius at Sydney’s Observatory Hill.
On the “heatwave” day last week, the gauge topped 32.9 degrees celsius at this site.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, you should expect 2.3 days in November every year to hit a maximum temperature over 30 degrees celsius.
Which raises the question if this hot weather was predictable for late November why were three coal fired power units out for maintenance at this time rather than a more moderate time of the year?
One unit was out for unexpected reasons, but the system should not be run in a way that the simple loss of one element could cause a blackout.
However, it is true that our coal fired power stations are becoming unreliable.
That should not be surprising because old machines break down and our coal fired power stations are getting old because we have not built new ones for a long time.
We are no longer willing to use our coal because people are worried that we are going to get more hot days.
But if they really believed that we are going to get more hot days, why are they building an energy system that is so dependent on the sun as Mr Minns helpfully pointed out?
We cannot maintain a healthy and prosperous modern economy with a weather dependent energy grid.
The most shocking thing about the near blackout last week in New South Wales is that it should not be shocking at all.
Our energy regulators have warned of this outcome for years and yet our governments have done nothing to firm up our energy suppliers.
Instead, governments continue to double down on the failure of the energy transition.
If we keep going down this route our luck will run out and widespread blackouts will become as regular a part of the Australian summer as a game of cricket.
