The danger of reliance on electrical generation power sources that can suddenly surge or diminish the way wind and solar energy do was highlighted by a major blackout that left central Australia and the “major” town of Alice Springs without electricity for up to nine hours.
Yesterday, two top energy officials in the Northern Territory lost their jobs over the fiasco:
The Northern Territory Labor government has sacked the territory’s two most senior energy chiefs following a damming report from the market regulator into a “system black” event that hit the city of Alice Springs in October.
Tim Duignan, the CEO of Territory Generation, and Michael Thompson, the head of network operator and systems control company Power and Water Corporation were both sacked after the government received a report from the Utilities Commission into the outage, which affected 12,000 customers for between 30 minutes and 10 hours.
The reports point to a range of issues, hinted at in RenewEconomy’s article on Friday — Billionaires’ huge solar dream overshadows troubling energy wars in Top End.
It seems clear that this is not a problem about technology — despite some trying to sheet the blame on the amount of rooftop solar in the local grid and the impact of passing clouds — but of corporate and energy culture. And of incompetence.
An investigating report by consultants Entura — requested by the Utilities Commission — found that staff managing the system did not anticipate the approaching cloud cover, and did not know what to do when they realised what was happening and output from the Uterne solar farm and rooftop solar panels declined.
Who could anticipate clouds?
Seriously, anyone with a brain — which is why solar and wind power installations require backup generators that come into use only when unexpected events like clouds or low winds happen. But that requires maintaining the backup systems:
Thermal generators failed because they had not been properly maintained, and the staff had no idea how to re-start the machinery, because procedures had not been updated since the installation of a big battery. To cap things off, there was insufficient spinning reserve and the system was unstable.
As Australian blogger JoNova comments: “Welcome to the new complexified energy grid, where a cloud can cause a system black event.”
Read more at American Thinker
Supporters of wind and solar need to register as such and have electric meters installed that can shut off in order to provide power for those with common sense.
“Seriously, anyone with a brain — which is why solar and wind power installations require backup generators that come into use only when unexpected events like clouds or low winds happen.”
Me thinks backup generators shouldn’t just come into use only when unexpected events like clouds or low winds happen. Backup generators would be good to have available for those hours between dusk and dawn and perhaps a few additional hours after dawn and before dusk too. Or when high winds happen like when a storm front passes through. Or when icing happens. And backup generators would be especially nice to have when solar and/or wind power installations are damaged when SH&T happens due to “severe weather”. But backup generators should be mandated in inhabited areas prone to experience life threatening temperatures.
Looking into the future is not science fiction stuff. Looking at the power outage in Central Australia will become common in the future. For 24/7 power, wind and solar require backup fossil fuel generators. On the way to “net zero” the point will be reached where the emissions from these backup generators will produce more emissions than is allowed. How much power is available, or in locations with no hydroelectric or nuclear, if power is available will be weather dependant.
The environmental left is always making claims that impacts from climate change are already happening even though this isn’t possible because the warming so far is less than we often see from one year to the next. The real thing that is already happening is the impact of the climate change agenda.
Wind and Solar Energy just can not be relied upon to supply the ab mount of energy needed the wind don’t blow all the time and the sun is only up there during the daylight hours and most all Enviromentalists are loose nuts in the first place