" Blackouts " Coming !

Here we are in the first week of Spring and with the prospect of a long, hot summer awaiting us.  The only fly in the ointment seems to be a doubt that we will have enough electric power to avoid blackouts on the hottest days.

This quagmire is the result of an emotional panic in public minds that we need to save the planet by stopping the use of coal for power generation and the usual political opportunism to block any measures that would bring practical relief.  The public mind is set on replacing coal with wind and solar, despite its inability to deliver a reliable base load supply.

This has been exacerbated by the close down of several old coal fired power generators with others slated for removal from the grid in the years ahead.  The spotlight is shining on the  forty-six year old Liddell plant in the New  South Wales Hunter region.   This is scheduled to stop operation in 2022.

This plant is owned by AGL, one of the biggest power suppliers in Australia and the government is insisting that closure be delayed and the plant remain operational for another five years.  That is meeting resistance from AGL and one of the reasons is the company promise that it is " getting out of coal " which is cementing its image in public minds as a " progressive " company.

We seem to be caught in a " betwixt and between " situation.   Old plant closures that have already taken place leave us perilously short on the hottest days to come and at the same time the fuel favoured to replace coal - gas -  is going to export, leaving insufficient to bridge the gap if we build new generators in time.

The government is negotiating with AGL and no doubt the problem may be resolved, but if not it may become necessary to either buy or nationalize Liddell to keep it running and ease the crisis.  Unfortunately power generation is a state issue and this further complicates getting a common approach in place to what will quickly become an Australian financial problem.  Our electricity charges are now the highest in the world and supply interruptions would quickly cause what is left of Australian manufacturing industry to become uncompetitive.  In particular, we would lose our aluminium production sector.

What is urgently needed is to bring the entire Australian power grid under the control of a single authority and give that the ability to decide how we are to generate the electricity this country needs. All options - on the table.  We have a big share of the worlds Uranium - and nuclear needs to be evaluated in a clear and professional manner.   We may need to still use coal in the short term but the power Australia needs will certainly be a hybrid mix of solar and wind, hydro electric generation - and base load by burning some type of fuel.   There are obvious advantages of integrating the eastern states in a common distribution grid.

Now all we require is political sanity to make that happen !