Thanks to its obsession with intermittent wind and solar, Australian’s power is neither reliable, nor affordable.
A warm spell across Australia this week – with temperatures in the 40°C range – has seen the demand for electricity hit the roof.
Across South Australia, Victoria, NSW and Queensland air-conditioners have been cranked into furious action to cool homes and businesses, and refrigerated systems are working overtime to keep produce and other perishables cool and saleable.
This perfectly predictable spike in demand has coincided with perfectly predictable total collapses in wind and solar output: a week of near breathless days killing off output from the former and sunset merrily dealing with the latter.
As STT has pointed out once or twice before, pin your power needs to the weather and expect results to vary.
Last summer saw mass load shedding and blackouts across Victoria, South Australia and NSW, when spikes in demand combined with collapses in wind and solar output.
Daily demand patterns are as predictable as the delivery of wind and solar are chaotic.
Instead of admitting that wind and solar are integral to Australia’s power pricing and supply calamity, the intelligentsia are telling us that we simply need to do without. Third World power rationing – aka “demand management” – is the witless response to a disaster brought to unwitting Australians by the witless. And this in a country that was once an energy superpower, with the cheapest power prices, in the world.
JoNova takes a look at what, for sweltering Australians, must surely be ‘peak stupid’.
What do we call it when the State turns off your air conditioner? A “Peaksmart” moment
Jo Nova Blog
Jo Nova
6 December 2019
You can’t make this stuff up.
The Government advertising bureau — the ABC — is telling Queenslanders that it’s good for them if the government switches off their air conditioning.
As we pay more than ever for electricity, we also lose control of even our household appliances. If we get something back for the overpriced service, the propaganda unit calls this a payment, and a benefit.
If you have a Christmas party and 30 guests and you can’t use your own air conditioner, don’t forget, the State knows best. If it causes “whitenoise” interference, adds one more failure point, or causes people to turn their air conditioners down in temperature preemptively, or program them to come on earlier, who cares?
If the ABC says something is smart, we know it’s …
Power companies will soon be paying you to cut your energy use
Stephen Long, ABC
The units installed on the walls of his apartment look the same as any other air conditioners, but there is a difference. They’re fitted with “PeakSmart” technology. It allows the electricity network company to send a signal that turns the air conditioning down for a short while during times of peak demand when the network is feeling the strain. “We cycle down the compressor, which is what creates the cooling part of the air conditioner,” says Peter Price, an executive general manager at Energy Queensland.
It’s a miracle, who needs electrons? Every day the ABC undoes something the education system tried to teach children.
“It cycles down for 20 minutes. The fan still runs, blowing out cold air. Customers don’t know that we’ve done that, but it pulls down the peak demand enough to make a difference.”
Mr Casey got a rebate that covered about half the cost of installing the air conditioners, and he’s a happy customer.
“We’ve not noticed a thing,” he tells the ABC.
About 100,000 Queensland houses already have these installed. Gone are the luxury days when consumers could control their own appliances, get cheap reliable electricity, and not need invasive, complicated schemes in order to keep some of their own money.
Demand response is coming, nationwide
Soon the rest of the nation will get a taste of what the Sunshine State has pioneered, but in an even more sophisticated form.
‘Wholesale demand response’ is coming, and it’s set to revolutionise the electricity system.
“It will be the biggest reform ever in the history of the National Electricity Network,” says Dan Cass, the energy policy lead at The Australia Institute.
The ABC appears to be writing for ten year olds.
Demand response could allow coal plants to close early
The flow-on benefits are enormous.
Enormous benefits for who? The international conglomerate renewable giants? The bureaucrats whose jobs depend on selling and managing your airconditioner use?
Most of the time Australia does not need all of the electricity that its mix of coal, gas, solar, wind and hydroelectricity is capable of supplying.
Effectively, the nation builds massive overcapacity compared to electricity demand in ordinary times to avoid power disruption on a small minority of extreme days when there is huge demand.
Effectively, the nation has paid to build an enormous overcapacity that can’t be relied upon in the hope of stopping storms and bushfires.
Our entire gird generation is being doubled so half the infrastructure can run 20 – 30% of the time while the other half sits around like a deadweight costing staff, maintenance, land, and capital.
Jo Nova Blog
STOP THESE THINGS 
I remember a paper that explained that these units take more power to produce and sustain than they ever produce. So, if the people are expected to do without then why are the wind energy ‘developers’ allowed to use those same resources the people can no longer properly access to continue to build? It is not right to say it is for the ‘industry’ of it, is it? Industry: “the quality of regularly working hard”, implying, in my opinion, at least, the successful resolution of the problem being so … industriously … tackled.
Queensland is to install 300 or so air conditioners starting in the hottest area schools. In 20 minutes with that many kids they will be sweltering in no time flat, making the installations useless. More ineffective waste of money.
Now the state government is crowing about some 440 temporary construction jobs for a new wind ‘farm’ near Maryborough, QLD in a forest. Forest Wind Holdings in a joint venture with CleanSight and Siemens Financial Services, 220 turbines costing $2billion to be managed by HQPlantations.
Siemens Financial services CEO and chairman Jeff Connolly said this investment into the state’s future added to Siemens’ prior equity stake in the successful consortium stake in the successful consortium for the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
One wonders if they could change a light bulb between them.
Of hospitals: A 16-year-old boy waited 8 days for ’emergency surgery’ (diagnosed 13th December) on a broken collar bone in the Hervey Bay, Qld public hospital. Really broken according to the X-ray picture.
Politicians are paying lip-service about looking after kids or anyone else, except themselves. The respected historian Carrol Quigley’s book Tragedy & Hope, surmised the current situation in his preface in 1966.
A news headline “Taxes pay for strippers” revealed one MP spent $18,000 for dinners. Then more $’s for dinners and “seminars” for a West AU Upper House MP group calling themselves the “Black Hand Gang” – so much for social leaders laughing hysterically at the stupidity of taxpayers, with their unaccounted for expenditure of electoral allowances, then pocketing the left over. If political parties were taken out of the ‘charity status’ (charity for themselves) putting their hands into their own pockets instead of taxpayers, with business donations to both major parties being a tax deduction double-dip to keep the system going, there would then be a change of attitude.
It’s being kept very quiet that twice since British settlement the Murray River has run dry.
A 1923 photo of Sir Ronald East, Victoria’s Water Commissioner, at Nyah near Swan Hill, Victoria straddling a trickle of water and another earlier one of a family picnicking on the grass in the middle of the empty river. But just like the lower Murray lakes being artificial, few people know of the extent of the previous droughts.
We are governed by lunatics and it can only get worse under the Malthusian agenda.
Well said Peter.
Thanks Terry.
Just announced that QLD schools will also have solar panels and there will be cheap electricity at electric car charging stations.
Still no plans of what to do with all the batteries. Even the tonnes of of batteries for toys and such aren’t recycled.
Firstly the Lower Lakes are not artificial, they have always been there though prior to the locks being built along the Murray they did dry out as the River’s seasonal flow dwindled, those lakes are Lake Albert and Alexandrina, the Coorong is a completely different matter and as a RAMSAR protected site is essential for the natural environment.
The reason for locks along the river was not only to provide water for irrigation but to enable boats to traverse the river delivering goods to riverside communities and bringing back goods grown there. As goods are no longer shipped down the Murray the need for the locks has changed to one of control of flow, to enable river communities to remain and farmers to have water supply for their crops and of course to supply water to people in Adelaide and beyond.
The story of drought and plenty in Australia as told by the rampant extremist minority and propagated by much of the media and especially the ABC belies the true state of affairs in this Nation. With this rampant few taking over the education of our children whether via social and other media as well as in our schools.
What they do not teach is, we can never rely on the weather, whether for rain or wind, and today people are being ‘schooled’ into believing these things can be relied on to provide for our needs.
WE are the ones who have to ensure our needs are there when we need them and to do that we have the chance to vote into Parliaments those who SAY they will look after our needs – unfortunately lies are plentiful at the times we go to vote, from every-side of Politics.
Here in SA today we have our second consecutive State Wide Total Fire Ban day, with some areas classified as ‘Catastrophic’ with temperatures not looking to get below 40+C until the late afternoon or even later.
This coupled with very strong Northerly winds means we are fragile with respect to being able to control natures fury if a
bush-fire should take off.
We have also been informed our Energy body will be shutting down, by a rolling blackout process our energy supply – well lets face it we have to share the pain – don’t we!
But then the pain is worse for some because if like me you are not connected to the State Water supply system once the power goes off so does your water supply – that is unless you have a ‘dirty’ fuel generator which can keep it flowing.
If you haven’t then you cannot flush a toilet or use the hose to either keep the area around your home damp in the hope that if a fire does come your way you could may-be able to save your home – but also you cannot switch on the air conditioner or even flush the toilet.
However, in the city where most energy is used they can flush the toilet, get a drink of water, have a shower to cool off, without any problems.
Then we have Turnbull’s glorious NBN to cope with if the power goes off, you have no communication via phone or internet, unless you can keep the battery in your mobile phone and wireless charged – not easy if the power is off, and what about those living outside of the cities who rely on the phone/internet to keep them informed of dangers that could be coming their way?
The system in this country is shattered and this came about due to demanded changes to the way we do things, the way we produce and utilise energy and these demands came from an organisation consisting of members who have no concept of the needs of people living in rural and regional Australia.
We cannot forget or allow it to be forgotten our Government stood there and let it happen, allowed an international body to tell us what we need and how we should go about it.
This created the situation where our Government’s fell into the arms of the Wind (which morphed into the Renewable’s) industry.
RENEWAL has only brought about DECLINE and loss of independence and the need to ensure we have energy when and where it is needed no matter where we live in this Nation.
I wonder will the powers that be allow them to cut energy to the DeSal plant in SA – to share the load,! Thereby ensuring the much needed water is in even shorter supply while they crank up the plant once the power comes back on!
Electricity and access to it is something we all depend on it’s an ESSENTIAL SERVICE and should not be left in the hands of those who are only interested in how much money they can pocket, we have a right to expect it to be produced and distributed safely and cheaply, it should not be considered a thing that can be shut off at times of greatest need, but something which requires every effort to maintain at full capacity all day and every single day no matter the weather.
Be assured Australia a fire of a different kind than is being experienced by rural and regional people today,is building in the hearts and minds of many and with more and more feeling the sensation something surely will be done to stop the DECLINE.
Sorry Jacqueline but I’ve only just seen your post.
By saying the lower lakes are artificial, what is meant is the breakwaters or barrages as the are called in the following:
https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/pubs/FS_barrages.pdf There are other sites as well.
The man-made constructions stop saltwater from entering into the lower Murray, so in that sense, maintaining them as freshwater for stock and migrating birds, makes them ‘artificial’. Were the breakwaters removed they would return to their natural tidal state.
During the last Murray flood an Adelaide Uni Prof had fears that all the ‘new freshwater’ creatures would be swept out to sea leaving now different migrating birds reliant on the food, starving.
The flood in the about mid 1970 saw farmers around Deniliquin being kept from their near river paddocks for a couple of years allowing wild pigs to multiple which caused some problems.
In addition https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/5403208/drought-myth-holds-murray-darling-back/
All the photographs and newspaper reports of the Murray River with no flow come from three years (1901, 1915 and 1923) and from three locations, and these were all downstream of major irrigation areas that were busy pumping out water during droughts.
You may find it easier than I to look at BOM history to find if at the same time of these years (they vary on different sites) if QLD and NSW were at the same time, experiencing less water flow to the Murray.
At the peak of the last ice age, when our girting sea was far lower, it would be hard to tell if the land was experiencing more droughts or floods.
I followed Turnbull’s supposedly ‘open consultation’ over the water trading scheme. The Panama Papers revealed he and Neville Wran were in a tax haven registered business and Tun-o-bull on ABC TV (that has been fooling people for years by giving the same interviews voice overs by different presenters who falsely accept congratulations) that, “Unfortunately the company didn’t make a profit, but if it had it would have paid the appropriate amount of tax.” Being Zilch.
In April 2018 ScoMo said the Banking Royal Commission revealed nothing the government didn’t already know. Almost a year earlier Turnbull in a SkyNews interview said, “We know what’s wrong with the banks and could write the legislation to fix it tomorrow.” But did nothing.
The selloff of the CBA gave away our financial independence with the NLP-ALP economic consensus with Margaret Thatcher’s MPS-IEA (Lord Ralf Harris was president and director respectively; describing Hawke and Keating as, “Two of my brightest students even thought they were Labor men.” CBA was based on the original US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s credit system as opposed to this usury system. Just as the Australia Act 1986 made the Commonwealth a sovereign nation state over nothing, the States control natural resources and retain the right of appeal to Britain which is reciprocal resource control. The Governor General can recall all gold stocks at an arbitrary price. Kim Beazely accepting the WA governorship put paid to any ALP republican intention.
Do a spreadsheet of UN members, non permanent UNSC members and those under the IMF and it becomes obvious why the UN is powerless about the genocide in Yemen. Apart from an adopted motion can only be amended by the proposer; Britain proposed the blockade.
If Malthusian ideology (1798) repeated by Lord Bertrand Russell and promoted by many into the present day, including Rhodes scholars whether they know it or not, is the basis of WWF-Green overpopulation not underdevelopment theory.
Just months before WWF was created Prince Philip, QEII, Princess Margaret and Prince Charles plus entourage were on a Bengal tiger hunt. Other founding members were former Nazi SS Officer Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Julian Huxley President of the British eugenics Society. In 2012 King Juan Carlos of Spain was on an elephant hunt in Botswana; President of the Spanish WWF branch. I have photos of both hunts.
The Documentary ‘Unlawful Killing Princess Diana’ directed by Keith Allen, financed by Dodi Fayed’s father (Dodi made the film Chariots of Fire that didn’t endear him to the aristocracy) Mohamed Al Fayed, was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival then Ireland, it disappeared for a few years to resurface at the Sydney Underground Film Festival. At 1hr 20min it is available free on YouTube and raises many questions including why Diana was kept still alive in the ambulance for 3/4hr when a fully equipped hospital was 5min down the road. Two former Police Commissioners who kept evidence locked away, were made Lords of the Realm so they could refuse to appear in court if called, plus the mysterious death of a photographer found locked in his burnt out car with two bullet holes in his head, no keys and no gun, it was ruled as suicide. Explains a lot of why things as are they are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2fAwemN97U
Regardless of most financial journalists belief the $250K deposit guarantee is only activated at APRA’s discretion with severe penalties for any employee who makes public that APRA has taken over the ADI. To fully understand requires understanding the Financial Crisis Management Bill 2017 (particularly 11CAA Definitions (b) among other things) and the Act 2018 along with the FSB 15APL2013 PLEN/2013/55. As to ‘our banks’ cross-ownership (175.66%) correct in 2014 is telling. https://www.creditcardcompare.com.au/?_ga=2.266160903.944981711.1576636777-136270421.1576636777
Renewable energy zealots want everyone to rely on unpredictable weather to supply electricity.
Fools say climate change has caused both the drought and bush fires. The latter in all the eastern states is due to Green ideology that considers a ‘natural environment’ is one where time stands still so there are no droughts or floods; a perfect Garden of Eden, maintained by wind and sun that by their nature, are unreliable. It’s a mythological belief being held by grownups and children alike and as the drought and fires prove, Green ideology fails the sanity test.
Germany, as the leader in RE has recognised its failed experiment; from having to rely on French nuclear energy and its wind turbines killing pollinating insects (STT), the carcinogenic effects of the 2009 BP Solar factory fire (disappeared from the net; as many things do, retain a page copy of interest immediately), destruction of habitat, a vista of sleep depriving forest of turbines. All could have been avoided by remaining true to its safe technological and scientific advance in nuclear energy, but chose instead to follow the armchair expert’s fork to destruction and oblivion of human life support systems.
Australia has a similar ship of fools. With no end of life disposal plans for RE, or the tonnes of batteries used each year in toys and devices, all go to degrade and pollute in landfill.
RE is removing more land, killing more creatures and habitat, than the peaceful use of recyclable fission and fusion’s advancing technology could ever destroy. With RE the future is limbo, a post industrial society means no toys for children or adults, it means centuries of human endeavour, invention and scientific advancement, has all been a waste of time, effort and sacrifice.
So to an extent we are on the same page.
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