The energy chickens are coming home to roost. Our energy policy, already a train wreck, descended into farce last week, when Labor State Governments in New South Wales and Victoria announced that they would subsidise coal fired power stations to keep them open.
After years of denigrating coal fired power, state governments have been forced to this position by the dire electricity outlook published by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
AEMO runs our increasingly unreliable electricity system. They have concluded that over the next three years New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia will all breach its “reliability standard”. This is just a technical word for there may be blackouts. Queensland is not far behind and blackouts might be headed our way by the end of the decade.
Australia is the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas and second largest exporter of thermal coal. Australia running out of electricity is like eskimos running out of ice. It is almost unthinkable how we have allowed this to happen.
There is a simple explanation, however. Over the past decade we have shut down coal and gas plants and not replaced them with power stations that can stay on or be switched on when you need. These “baseload” stations are essential if you are to keep the lights on all day.
Even the Federal Labor Government likes to point out that over 4 gigawatts of baseload came out of the system while the LNP were last in Government while only 1 gigawatt was installed. However, Labor fails to mention that another 1.2 gigawatts has been retired since they have been in Government. So we are now facing a gap of over 5 gigawatts of reliable power.
This gap is why you are paying so much more for electricity. We were sold the pup that the “sun is free”. This is not true even during the day – China still wants to be paid for the solar panels we buy from it – but at night it is irrelevant. We increasingly do not have an energy system that is reliable when the weather is just not right – sunny and windy.
When the weather Gods are against us, prices skyrocket and they have to be passed on to you when your bill arrives.
The answer is simple. We need to build reliable power stations to replace the old ones we have shut down. Solar and wind power cannot fill the gaps. We cannot install the number of batteries necessary to keep the lights on and pumped hydro is turning into nothing more than false hope. Snowy Hydro 2.0 is now 6 times over budget and will possibly not be built this decade.
I have been calling for Australia to build new coal fired power stations for over 6 years. Back then I was told it would take too long to build a coal fired power station. It would take 5 to 6 years!
Well, if we had started back then we would be shovelling the first coal into them by now and you would not be paying as much for electricity.
Despite that delay we still need to build them. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today.
Let’s stop being stubborn and build some new coal fired power stations as soon as possible to get electricity prices down and keep our lights on.
