Misery !

Ask the average person how they would describe a " third world country " and many think of regular disruptions to the electricity supply.  Here in Australia the flow of electric power has always been readily available - at the flick of a switch.  Today - in this " lucky " country we have many citizens too frightened to activate that switch.

We are warned that our next power bill will probably rise by as much as five hundred dollars a year.  Many a household budget simply does not have that sort of leeway - and accordingly desperate measures are in place to use less power.  Some people wrap themselves in blankets at night to avoid using a heater.  The elderly risk catastrophic falls because they have switched off all unnecessary lights as an economy measure.  We are even seeing death by carbon monoxide poisoning when people bring outdoor BBQ's inside and light them to gain a little warmth.  There is talk of insufficient power to meet our needs when the scorching heat of summer arrives.

We are told that planet earth is overheating because we are burning fossil fuels.   Oil is a fossil fuel and we use huge quantities of that to run our cars.  It seems that we are on the cusp of having electric car fleets and when that happens there will be added pressure on power generation to keep their batteries recharged.   Our whole world with its reliance on electronic communications is fuelled by electricity and most of that is generated by burning coal.

Public opinion has turned against coal.  Quite irrationally we have been closing down coal fired older power stations without having an economic alternative in the wings to replace them.    Wind and solar have been the great hope, but so far they are unable to deliver the base load we need to keep the lights burning during the hours of darkness.

The anti coal lobby is shrill and it is now almost impossible to get a rational discussion on creating a new coal fired power station.   The banks are under pressure to deny finance and yet modern power generation using coal can deliver the cheapest form of electricity with far less carbon dioxide pollution than the old coal fired monsters of yesteryear

It is all a matter of balance.  Wind and solar continue to takeup more of the load but we still need a load base to ensure continuous and reliable electricity supply, and at this stage that can only be coal. As alternatives advance they are used less and would only probably come on line when a weather peak or other unexpected event increased demand.   As things stand, we have no backup standing ready and in such an event the only alternative is rolling blackouts.

We have a responsibility to generate power at a price ordinary people can afford.  The misery we are inflicting is out of kilter with the amount of Co2 that would be released by using coal in a modern generating plant as an interim measure !