Wind and solar acolytes fail to mention that the ‘inevitable transition’ includes hours spent sitting freezing or boiling in the dark.
Power rationing by postcode is the new normal in Australia, as grid managers attempt to deal with the chaotic delivery of wind and solar. Former energy users are being encouraged not to use energy in order to prevent the grid from a total ‘system black’. And when encouragement fails, the grid manager simply cuts their access to power for hours on end.
New South Wales has a Liberal government hellbent on killing off their reliable coal-fired power plants in order to make way for more wind turbines and solar panels – on their current (woeful) performance, Matt Kean and his band of rent-seeking mates should be careful what they wish for.
Set out above – courtesy of Aneroid Energy – is the output from all of the whirling wonders that grace the ranges of NSW on 13 June 2022, with a notional capacity of 2,224 MW.
In the wee hours, output dropped from around 600 MW (27% of capacity) to less than 200 MW before sunrise.
As Sydneysiders headed to work, wind power output headed to the floor. Between 9 AM and 3 PM output barely budged above 50 MW; bottoming out around noon at a risible 19.9 MW (0.89% of capacity).
The team managed a brief burst of 294 MW (13% of capacity), dropping back to 287 MW (8% of capacity) and then bouncing around between 200 to 250 MW during the evening.
Now, let’s have a look at how Sydneysiders were coping with their inevitable transition to an all-wind and sun-powered future on Monday, 13 June 2022.
Sydney Grid Fail: Australia’s Greenest Voters Plunged into Darkness
Watts Up With That
Eric Worrall
14 June 2022
Entire Sydney suburbs plunged into darkness as more power outages loom
7 News
Rhiannon Lewin
14 June 2022
Suburbs around Sydney suffered power outages on Monday night, as officials warn more blackouts could be on their way.
Homes in Beacon Hill, Frenchs Forest, Narraweena, Cromer and Dee Why were all temporarily without power, Ausgrid said.
Queenslanders were warned they were at risk of a significant power disruption between 5.30pm to 8pm on Monday, but blackouts were avoided.
Meanwhile, NSW is on high alert from 7pm on Tuesday due to a predicted supply shortfall.
The power outages come as Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen warns the system is “under pressure” and said households should ‘brace for a bumpy period ahead’.
“In terms of the immediate situation, it’s being very actively managed,” Bowen told Sunrise on Tuesday morning.
“We managed to avoid any load shedding or blackouts in Queensland last evening.
7 News
The AEMO government regulator greensplained that the shortages are because greedy power plant operators refused to provide power at below cost.
Power companies accused of ‘unconscionable conduct’ as they withdraw from grid
Brisbane Times
Mike Foley
14 June 2022
Power generators are exploiting the chaotic energy market by withdrawing power supply from the electricity grid and waiting until strict rules to prevent blackouts kick in, forcing the energy market operator to direct them to fire their plants back up and triggering profitable compensation payments.
There’s no law stopping power companies from withdrawing their electricity generation from the market, and in the past two days they have reduced the volume available by 2 gigawatts in Victoria, 3 gigawatts in NSW and 1.5 gigawatts in Queensland.
The withdrawals were prompted by the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) decision to put a cap on spiralling prices that electricity generators are charging for wholesale power, which crimped the profit margin of some generators, which are battling coal prices that are soaring because of sanctions on Russian exports.
But the electricity market is tightly regulated and AEMO has powers, designed to prevent blackouts, which enable it to force generators to fire up units and start supplying electricity to the grid. Whenever AEMO does this, companies are awarded compensation.
AEMO was unusually forthright in a public statement yesterday when it said that directly after price caps were imposed on power companies “available offers were reduced”.
…
A spokesperson for the Australian Energy Council, which represents major power generators including AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin, said its members faced a “complex issue” but were seeking solutions to the power crunch.
“The price cap unintentionally means that some plants can’t recover their fuel costs. Participants are legitimately seeking ways to resolve the problem,” the spokesperson said.
Brisbane Times
If only there was a reliable, dispatchable 24×7 zero carbon energy source whose generators only required refuelling every couple of years, which Australia could refuel from our world class mineral resources, which could shield Australian consumers from volatile fuel prices, and maintain stable baseload during difficult circumstances.
Watts Up With That?
Oh, before we leave Sydneysiders and their transition to an all wind and sun-powered future, we thought we’d deal with the old chestnut put forward by politicos and the MSM that “the wind is always blowing somewhere”, ergo, all that’s needed to fix our current energy mess is more transmission lines connecting the thousands of wind turbines spread across Australia’s Eastern Grid and/or more interconnectors to transmit power between states connected to the Eastern Grid.
The image below depicts the location of wind farms situated across the Eastern Grid – from Mt Emerald in Far North Queensland, Coopers Gap in south-east Queensland; all along the eastern ranges of NSW – and Broken Hill in its far west; all over Victoria; the north of Tasmania; and all over south-central South Australia. Half a continent’s worth of wind power potential.
Notwithstanding a notional capacity of 9,854 MW – and even with ‘the wind always blowing somewhere’ – the team rarely manages to produce more 60% of that capacity, and then only for brief spurts.
More often it’s a tiny fraction of that, as on 13 June 2022 (see above).
After midnight the total output from all of the wind turbines connected to the Eastern Grid amounted to 1,480 MW (15% of capacity).
By noon that had plummeted to 448 MW (4.5% of capacity). Output bounced around between 450 and 600 MW, before eventually climbing out of the doldrums, reaching 2,064 MW (20% of capacity) at midnight, long after householders had turned off their lights and their reverse-cycle AC heating systems.
No amount of additional transmission lines or interconnectors will overcome the fact that wind power simply cannot deliver power as and when power consumers need it. Simples.
Welcome to your candle-lit wind-powered future!
STOP THESE THINGS 
The cowardice and ignorance exhibited by the vast majority of politicians and the media is staggering.
I have zero faith in pollies or the media.