$1.1 billion during 48 hours...

[The Mechanic]

The energy bill from last week’s heatwave has been revealed with Victoria and South Australia spending $1.1 billion during 48 hours of scorching weather.

Tremendous pressure was placed on power supplies at the height of the heat as temperatures reached the mid to high 40s.

The Australian Energy Market was forced to order rolling power cuts across both states to prevent widespread blackouts.

In Victoria alone, that meant 200,000 homes and businesses were left without power in the middle of the heatwave.

Three generators in Victoria, two at Yallourn and one at Loy Yang, failed in the lead up to the extreme heat.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ response to last week’s power struggles was that it had reiterated the need to push towards more renewable energy sources.

“Something is seriously wrong when the power goes out in Victoria because we don’t have enough supply,” Opposition leader Michael O’Brien said in the wake of the heat.

“We are not a Third World country. We deserve a safe and reliable power grid.”

Malcolm Roberts .

Victoria and South Australian energy users pay an additional $1.1 billion for power during heatwave.

Climate regulations are driving investment away from cheap reliable coal energy generation to subsidised expensive intermittent wind and solar.

The result is an under investment in maintenance in coal plants leading to unnecessary breakdowns.

What sort of system do we have when government spends millions in taxpayers money to compensate businesses not to use energy during heatwaves.

hopefully the Hundreds of Thousands of people that lost power were all Labor/Greens voters..

we could be building new Power Stations with the Tax Payers money that the Vic/SA Labor/Greens governments are pissing away

[Valkie]

bwyannnnnn dont believe in power blackouts.

They never happened

Its all fake media.

[brian ross]

Oh, I believe in power blackouts, Valkie.

I blame the Tory state governments which sold off the power generators to the private industry and stood by and allowed them to shut them down.

I blame the Tory state governments that sold off the power distribution systems and allowed private industry not to bother to maintain them.

I blame Tory governments at all levels which refuse to embrace renewable energy sources and who still live in the past centuries and want to continue to burn coal, despite all the evidence of the effects that cause.

I blame Tory governments that insist that "coal is good" and the "future".

Worse of all, I blame the idiot Tory supporters who believe what the Tory governments tell them and who refuse to pull their heads out of their arses and actually look at what the scientists are warning us about.

[Valkie]

Oh, I believe in power blackouts, Valkie.

I blame the Tory state governments which sold off the power generators to the private industry and stood by and allowed them to shut them down.

I blame the Tory state governments that sold off the power distribution systems and allowed private industry not to bother to maintain them.

I blame Tory governments at all levels which refuse to embrace renewable energy sources and who still live in the past centuries and want to continue to burn coal, despite all the evidence of the effects that cause.

I blame Tory governments that insist that "coal is good" and the "future".

Worse of all, I blame the idiot Tory supporters who believe what the Tory governments tell them and who refuse to pull their heads out of their arses and actually look at what the scientists are warning us about.

You forgot to mention the racists, bigots and islamaphobes.

Slipping bwyannnnnnnn

[brian ross]

Oh, I believe in power blackouts, Valkie.

I blame the Tory state governments which sold off the power generators to the private industry and stood by and allowed them to shut them down.

I blame the Tory state governments that sold off the power distribution systems and allowed private industry not to bother to maintain them.

I blame Tory governments at all levels which refuse to embrace renewable energy sources and who still live in the past centuries and want to continue to burn coal, despite all the evidence of the effects that cause.

I blame Tory governments that insist that "coal is good" and the "future".

Worse of all, I blame the idiot Tory supporters who believe what the Tory governments tell them and who refuse to pull their heads out of their arses and actually look at what the scientists are warning us about.

You forgot to mention the racists, bigots and islamaphobes.

Slipping bwyannnnnnnn

Oh, dearie, dearie, me. Trolling? How unusual for you, hey?

[The Mechanic]

Andrews’ genius for self-harm
One has to hand it to Dan Andrews (“Andrews closes the door on coal”, 8/7). His effective banning of future coal-fired power stations — in a state with 430 billion tonnes of brown coal — exceeds even his payment of more than $1 billion not to build a road.

After the closure last year of Hazelwood power station which supplied about a quarter of Victoria’s power, wholesale power prices jumped 80%.

AEMO has identified that “maintaining existing coal-fired generation up to the end of its technical life is a key element of a least-cost approach.”

Despite the importance of baseload power, in 2016 Labor tripled the coal excise tax, which forced the premature closure of the Hazelwood power station and sent electricity bills skyrocketing by $300.

Driven by ideology, Daniel Andrews 40% renewable energy target is stifling investment in Victoria’s remaining baseload generation and threatening the ongoing viability of key power stations such as Yallourn.

If Yallourn is forced out of the market as Hazelwood was, Victoria will lose another 22% of its electricity supply and all Victorians will be left paying the price.

do try and keep up with the FACTS Brian...

that way you won't look like such a Dickhead..

[brian ross]

Where did that piece of bullshit come from, Mechie? Oh, dearie, dearie, me.

What is needed in Australia is for power generation to be nationalised again. Take the generators out of the hands of private industry. Take the power distribution system out of the hands of private industry. Allow Governments to bring some common sense to the issue.

What we need is a plan which weeds out fossil fuel burning and replacing it with renewables - Solar, Wind, Tidal, ocean current, etc. systems. Clean, renewable power supply is what we need with little CO^2 generation.

Coal is dead, coal deserves to be buried. Renewables are the future, not Coal.

[Bobby]

Don't worry - one day soon,
we will have endless, cheap, safe, Thorium power.

[brian ross]

Don't worry - one day soon,
we will have endless, cheap, safe, Thorium power.

Difficult to extract and difficult to build reactors which produce sufficient power, Bobby. Renewables are here, now and easily accessed.

[Bobby]

Don't worry - one day soon,
we will have endless, cheap, safe, Thorium power.

Difficult to extract and difficult to build reactors which produce sufficient power, Bobby. Renewables are here, now and easily accessed.

It will be done.
We are at the start of 10,000 years of almost free, safe, energy.

We went from the Coal age to the Thorium age and
Uranium was a brief blip on the graph.