South Australians must wake up each morning in the vain hope that it’s all just a very bad dream.
Alas, their sorry reality is one dictated by wind worshipping lunatics, not least its vapid Premier, Jay Weatherill.
Last week, Weatherill launched an astonishing tirade against Chris Kenny – a columnist with The Australian and The Advertiser – calling him a “right-wing fuckwit” for having the temerity to point out one or two fairly obvious facts about the unfolding disaster caused by Weatherill’s obsession with wind power.
With a grid on the brink of collapse (the coming summer promises more mass blackouts and load shedding, whenever wind power output collapses on a total and totally predictable basis) and the highest power prices in the world by a country mile, you might think that humility would be the order of the day among the leaders responsible for such a self-inflicted social and economic calamity.
Not so for Weatherill and his hapless Labor government. Rather than reversing out of trouble, instead, Weatherill & Co aim to double down with much more of the same.
Responding in fairly measured tones, Chris Kenny put together a thumping piece that could have been co-written by STT (it wasn’t), in which he manages to turn the tables on his potty-mouthed antagonist.
Jay Weatherill is forever groping around in self-inflicted dark
The Australian
Chris Kenny
29 July 2017
At the brilliant Adelaide Oval in March, South Australia created entertainment history: Adele unplugged. In a stadium bankrolled by the state Labor government (it even subsidised a Rolling Stones concert there in 2014) Adele’s concert was interrupted by a partial blackout, forcing her to resort to stand-up comedy for a while.
Watching on from the corporate suites, Premier Jay Weatherill felt his heart surge towards his mouth as thousands of concertgoers feared the worst and felt the embarrassment of a state that had short-circuited its own reputation on power. Soon enough, a roadie replaced a plug, the stage fired up and the show was under way again. The Premier breathed a sigh of relief.
On social media the episode triggered sniggers and gibes; and I joined the mockery on my television show by calling it an “absolute embarrassment” even though it was probably only a “blown fuse or something” because you could “see the point” that was being made. The state’s vulnerability and sensitivity on power was on show, inconveniently on the eve of Weatherill’s announcement of a $500 million plan to repair his electricity shambles.
An unprecedented statewide blackout last September and follow-up load-shedding events (controlled blackouts to manage short supplies) this year mean South Australians live in fear of more outages as they pay the world’s highest electricity prices.
The state boasts it is leading the world in renewable energy generation, with wind and solar contributing more than 42 per cent of all power as Labor pursues an arbitrary 50 per cent share.
The state’s two coal-fired baseload power stations have been closed and demolished, sending more than 400 workers on to the job queues at Port Augusta. The main transmission lines from those old generators to Adelaide, 400km south, are reduced to shunting smaller amounts of power in the opposite direction and picking up electricity from renewable installations when the wind is blowing.
When the wind doesn’t blow the state is now almost entirely reliant on an interconnector from Victoria, feeding in mainly coal-fired power from the Latrobe Valley. The state has insufficient back-up electricity for when the intermittent renewable energy is not available and has almost no electrical storage.
To retrospectively fix this system fault there are plans for a federal government-funded pumped-hydro scheme near Port Augusta — it will pump seawater into the hills so it can flush down through turbines to generate electricity when required. This may store 1000 megawatts of power (about two hours output from the most recently demolished power station in the same region).
The state government is also pumping an undisclosed amount into the world’s largest battery, which will store about one-10th of that capacity. The 100MW lithium ion battery will be built by Tesla at the foot of a wind farm at a total cost reported to be up to $100 million. This battery would power the state at peak usage for less than three minutes but is designed to discharge over an hour, adding stability to the system when required. For quick back-up generation over the foreseeable future, the state will require more gas-fired generation.
One of the reasons South Australia suffered a statewide blackout in September last year is that a significant amount of its gas-fired generation had shut down. Just as baseload coal had been priced out by wind energy — which was subsidised by other suppliers and was fed into the system at next to nothing at times — so too had gas, even though it was sorely needed as back-up generation.
Gas generators couldn’t afford to pay increased gas prices just to provide electricity on an ad hoc basis — they could be stuck paying for gas but not selling electricity. Pelican Point, a modern, three-turbine 485MW gas plant, was mothballed because of these price pressures created by the renewable energy target.
So when last year’s storm took down a relatively insignificant transmission line and some wind farms failed, there was a drop in system generation large and sudden enough to trip the interstate interconnector. The state did not have the coal-fired baseload it needed or the rapid-response gas generation.
No wind power and no interconnection — SA went to black. It took hours to reboot the system because wind energy couldn’t do it and it took a long time to get gas on line. Some areas were without power for a day or more and the state suffered economic damage calculated at $367m. It also became a national laughing-stock.
To a degree the disaster has helped to repair the problem. Major electricity consumers in a range of industries suddenly had a stake in paying a premium for secure power supplies. Enough of them took up long-term contracts with Pelican Point-owner Engie to enable it to fund long-term contracts on gas — so this crucial thermal generation plant is up and running again, increasing the state’s options.
Yet still the state remains vulnerable over the peak usage period of summer.
To buy protection, and try to save his political skin at the looming March election, Weatherill unveiled (the day after the Adele concert) his extraordinary plan for back-up generation.
He promised to fund another gas-fired generator near Adelaide that would take at least two summers to come on stream. In the meantime he will lease from interstate or overseas a range of portable diesel and/or gas generators at a cost of $60m this summer and $50m the next.
This is what it looks like to lead the world in renewable energy — semi-trailers trucking in diesel generators at taxpayer expense.
So infatuated is Weatherill with wind energy that the photographs proudly displayed on a cabinet behind the Premier’s desk are two family snaps that are dwarfed by a large photo of a wind farm. He proudly boasts about leading the world in wind energy and battery installation but has provided a boon to those selling and leasing petrol and diesel generators.
Jay Weatherill with his favourite photo of a wind farm
Little more than a year ago he rejected proposals to help keep coal generation in place that would have cost a fraction of his present remedial spending. And for all of this chaos and risk to energy security, consumers are still paying the highest prices in the world in an economy that lags the rest of the mainland on a range of indicators including employment. It is an engineering, economic and political disaster.
All of this unfolds after the Labor government has been in power for 15 years; its initial “pledge card” to SA voters in 2002 promised to “fix” the state’s electricity system. Yet for pointing out this deliberate folly and how it fuelled the embarrassment at the Adele concert, Weatherill calls me a “right-wing f..kwit”.
This comes from a politician who lost the two-party preferred vote to right-of-centre parties 47-53 at the past election. He stayed in power only thanks to longstanding dodgy electoral boundaries.
Unlike the electricity system, the boundaries have now been fixed; so he starts the election from behind. As he spends taxpayers’ money on gas plants, diesel generators, batteries and advertising campaigns to spin his dystopia, Weatherill will be hoping there are no more blackouts.
There must be a strong chance that some time between now and March the lights will go out. Then, Premier, save for the right-wing bit, your vulgar tag may better suit Someone like you.
The Australian
STOP THESE THINGS 
Just noticed that the pumped storage uses seawater, have any Greens commented on the environmental impacts? Old44ft
One thing the otherwise duped Herald Sun reader is right about… is that financial people and financial institutions worldwide are flogging 100% RE economies to the gullible with either no supporting information…faulty information… or just plain propaganda.
The juggernaut of the enormously powerful, use mantras and slogans like ‘resistance is futile’….’the move to 100% renewables is unstoppable’…’the trend is irreversible’ —just as…decades ago… they used the mantras…’the consensus is ‘ and ‘the science is ‘in’…. ‘over’…’97% of scientists agree’….all of it intended to silence dissent…. END ALL REAL SCIENCE….and hide their real agenda.
To make all stakeholders deathly afraid to have anything to do with coal…the rentseekers have protected their own huge investments in RE by scaring investors worldwide into divesting of and shunning any coal assets…getting the only useful fuel out of the way…placing coal on death row….ie the fuel powering everything they do and underpinning all their prosperity…. is targeted for ‘eradication’… something akin to a cockroach plague….except of course they want to keep it in an uneconomic limbo for as long as THEY need it to prop up their
delusionary 100% RE system.
Their intention IMO is to rake in all the subsidies while they can [ a Warren Buffett RE company reportedly getting $239million from the pockets of America’s ‘forgotten people’]…and then blame ‘governments’ who’ll blame the scientists…who’ll blame the governments….etc etc when it all hits the fan….and they will wallow in their unparalleled ill-gotten wealth.
What must be done IMO is to demand…right now because there’s no time to waste… that all the claims and boasts of those trying to force the world into energy insecurity be TESTED….to let the wind farms and solar plants stand ALONE…without subsidy or favored treatment…without merit order effect …without special mandates and taxpayer-funded guarantees…no FF back-up …without connectors to other countries or states….ALONE…SA and Victoria first here.. because their Premiers don’t mind hurting their people at all….other states standing by to plug connectors back in to save the innocent.
It seems the only thing that CAN be done …and must be done before it’s all too late.
Attacking the messenger is the surest sign of a lost cause.
Reblogged this on Tallbloke's Talkshop and commented:
This is a fun spectacle from a distance, but not so much for South Australia’s hard-pressed electricity consumers.
A sign of desperation when weartherdill has to resort to this sort of leftie abuse/arrogance.
I wonder if Marelle has an example from anywhere in the world where a high percentage of solar or wind renewables relieves pressure on high energy prices.
Canadians send condolences to poor Australians suffering by the international wind energy racket.
We, too, in the Province of Ontario, are plagued by a lunatic premier, Ms. Kathleen Wynne, and a Prime Minister, Mr. Justin Trudeau, who smile in spite of the atrocities that so many civil servants try desperately to cover-up.
I suspect that when Premier Whetherill calls good people “F–kwits”, he betrays what he really thinks of innocent, taxpaying, citizens and children: victims that, in his insanity, he believes represent his duty to f–k wit’.
Here in Norfolk County, Ontario, “Engie” profits by the perpetration of reckless industrial wind turbines. That Engie could provide some relief to Australians in the form of gas-fired electricity generation, is a symptom of the Corruption that’s festering globally.
Too bad the United Nations appears to be condoning all this, eh?
I received a birthday card from my sister the other year. The front of the card had the symbol of a dove with the inscription in bold text, “Jesus loves you.”
Then I opened the card to find,
“……….but everyone else thinks your a wanker.”
Anyone know when its the premiers birthday?
Dear Mr or Mrs STT,
I always enjoy reading your daily epistles. Particularly today’s little gem. Your turn of phrase and sense of humour is great.
I mentioned to the CEO of that not to be mentioned organisation (the Waubra Foundation) tonight one other issue. It’s an issue which is very difficult to measure, but it is very real. It has long term consequences for SA which will only be able to be measured well after your vapid mate (not) as in the Premier is long gone. The issue is quite simply that I and others like me, will refrain from investing in companies which have any economic exposure to South Australia. Period. That can only have long term catastrophic consequences for South Australia. Sadly, the results of the current governmentâs actions will only come to light well after they have disappeared.
Regards,
Bill Laurie
Leftie f*ckTard if you ask me …
(Interchangable with greentard)
What Premier Whatajoke forgets in his rantings about what others are saying about SA is that they are not having a go at the State but at his inability to run it in anyway other than in to the ground.
He and his predessor have led the charge to what are laughably called renewable energy sources believing we are fools.
But not only were they warned time a d time again wind energy was unreliable and not suited to its claims but these sensible people who warned them were shunned and constantly denegrated by them. Gullable is a polite way of describing these ignorant self-absorbed ingrates.
Now this person is trying to squirm out of his mess by blaming everyone but himself. His pottymouth is only one of his imature behaviours, gone has the smarmy smile and in its place we are seeing the true nature of this man a man with a fast explosive temper which turns the smiley face into an angry one resulting from his mismanagement of the State being exposed.
We now see him as his true self a very dangersous man who with the help of a compliset party has led this State to ruin AND he wants to continue to do it.
What is needed is more reporters telling it as it is and questioning him at every opportunity making him accountble for his actions and pointing out his failings.
You’d think Weatherill would have learned from Scaramucchi that foul-mouthed abuse in public office can lead to instant defenestration….
The Premier is furious because Chris Kenny is from Adelaide. Home truths hurt most.
This is what we’re up against: indoctrinated youthful enthusiasts with university degrees, but no practical commonsense – as expressed in this classic letter published in today’s ‘Herald Sun’:
“The media needs to continue to hold to account those responsible for our ridiculously high (and rising) power prices. While greedy retailers continue to price-gouge consumers who are struggling as it is – and the federal government fails to protect the people – we need to start looking at real solutions and calling on those who can provide them. Economists from every side of the issue can see clearly that more renewables in the grid will relieve pressure on high energy prices. The Liberals, however, continue to keep pricey gas and dirty coal propped up. We can’t rely on the Turnbull Government to deliver solutions, but we are seeing promises from state governments to band together to bring in more renewables to protect consumers’ pockets.
Marelle Davey, Kensington”
Wonderful! I’m reminded of a little bit of Shakespeare: “Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,. That has such people in ‘t!” (“The Tempest” Act 5, Scene 1)
In the meantime, modern nuclear is looking better than ever! Check it out – links on pages 4 to 6: http://galileomovement.com.au/media/ShouldYouReallyBeAlarmed.pdf
And a word to those who wish to ‘knock’ the notion of nuclear energy for Australia, so I quote from a famous old saying: “It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt!”