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Post by David B. Benson on Apr 30, 2021 5:22:53 GMT 9.5
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Post by Roger Clifton on May 2, 2021 16:39:42 GMT 9.5
Fears proposal to charge households with solar panels to export electricity will kill demand South Australia is the wrong place to be looking for growth toward 100% renewable supply. The State does have more wind generating capacity than it consumes (1300 MW or so), but most of the time most of its power is drawn from (or forced onto) fossil generators in the much bigger, adjacent State of Victoria. South Australia is not isolated from fossil power at all – it is dependent on it. A better example of reliance on renewables is the fully isolated West Australian grid, more than 2000 km to the west of Adelaide. The Western Grid has more than 1200 MW (capacity) of rooftop solar, barely matched by approximately 1200 MW of gas and a similar, decreasing capacity of coal. The coal-fired equipment must be run at more or less constant power, so the unpredictable vacillations in the solar output must be matched with gas generation, much of which is single-stage gas turbine. With the solar capacity increasing at more than 200 MW per year, the grid operator is warning of instability ahead. www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-01/rise-of-rooftop-solar-power-jeopardising-wa-energy-grid/11731452www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-28/solar-splurge-reaches-new-heights-in-the-west/100095832(This broadcaster website is IMHO pro-renewables, so is not scaremongering.) People who are rich enough to own or be buying a house are given a State government subsidy to put solar panels on their roofs, with them paying the rest. Blind to the pay-off time being something like 15 years, they are attracted to reducing the power bills that help the public purse pay for the grid's operation. They are then subsidized a feed-in tariff of 7.13 cents/kWh (55 m$/kWh in USD), regardless of when and whether the grid can handle the injection. The geography of the WA grid is too flat to speak of hydro or pumped hydro storage. As you probably know, firming by battery storage on this scale is impossibly expensive and home batteries quite inadequate. Nevertheless, poker-faced, the grid operator is changing the tariff to favor the evening feed-in (10c between 1500-2100, else 3c) "to encourage people to invest in batteries". Cheated of their high-noon profits, greedy householders will probably start buying batteries that they have next-to-no chance of ever paying off. With one third of households having solar decorations, the size of their vote will probably ensure that even more of the public purse gets hijacked for battery subsidies to again help the rich dodge paying their share of the bill for the grid. www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-31/wa-solar-subsidy-overhaul-to-avoid-grid-overload/12608036
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Post by David B. Benson on May 18, 2021 11:05:39 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on May 30, 2021 15:57:38 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Jun 9, 2021 6:52:06 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Jul 3, 2021 11:55:31 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Jul 6, 2021 3:35:56 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Aug 10, 2021 3:42:50 GMT 9.5
Synchronous condensers to lift constraints on renewables in South Australia Natalie Filatoff 2021 Aug 09 pv magazine www.pv-magazine.com/2021/08/09/synchronous-condensers-to-lift-constraints-on-renewables-in-south-australia/So-called synchronous condensers are repurposed synchronous generators, often from retired coal fired plants. Such are kept rotating via a small Diesel engine. The inertia helps maintain line frequency against sudden changes. Of interest is that the utility is using a couple of these rather than install banks of batteries for the same purpose.
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Post by Roger Clifton on Aug 14, 2021 19:45:21 GMT 9.5
(link to) "Synchronous condensers to lift constraints on renewables in South Australia"... So-called synchronous condensers are repurposed synchronous generators, often from retired coal fired plants... Of interest is that the utility is using a couple of these rather than install banks of batteries for the same purpose. Apart from being intermittent, the power from wind generators of South Australia has unstable phase. Steam-derived power is synchronous - inherently stable. Consequently phase stability of the grid in South Australia has for many years been provided by the steam generators in Victoria, about thousand kilometres away. When a storm knocked out the connecting powerlines several years ago, the South Australian grid collapsed, plunging the state into a day long blackout. A synchronous condenser is a grid-driven generator, outputting power back into the grid with the phase stabilised. Logically, synchronous condensers should have been installed progressively as the proportion of wind power increased. However South Australia was able to parasitise its phase control from the Victorian generators to the east. After the blackout, the public demanded that the government fix the vulnerability. Blind to the fact that it would be hopelessly inadequate, followers of renewables insisted that a battery be installed big enough to level out the intermittency. Instead, the most expensive battery in the world was installed to flatter true believers, while the connection to Victoria was restored to provide on-demand power - and redundant phase stability.
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Post by David B. Benson on Sept 23, 2021 10:47:40 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Sept 30, 2021 2:31:20 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Nov 24, 2021 4:29:46 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Nov 28, 2021 8:22:36 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Nov 30, 2021 7:22:10 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Dec 2, 2021 4:18:34 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Dec 3, 2021 4:51:38 GMT 9.5
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Post by Roger Clifton on Dec 4, 2021 11:47:03 GMT 9.5
On the contrary, I think it is a calculated deception. Marketing of renewables junk has to ride on surges in my-God-it's-true! sentiment to sell equipment that is grossly inadequate for decarbonisation – on which public fears should be focused. The puff boasts of 250 MW, which is an impressive surge of power, for as long as it lasts. However it is silent over its mere 250 MWh of energy storage, concealing the fact that their battery cannot supply power long enough to displace fossil generation.
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Post by David B. Benson on Dec 10, 2021 7:59:23 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Feb 4, 2022 5:59:19 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Feb 15, 2022 6:11:01 GMT 9.5
As household solar stresses the grid, WA and South Australia will have the power to turn it off Daniel Mercer 2022 Feb 14 ABC Australia www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-14/household-solar-power-to-be-switched-off-to-prevent-overload/100820354WA, Western Australia, is not on the national grid so the people around Perth must make there own arrangements. South Australia is on the national grid via an interconnect to Victoria. That interconnect requires that the South Australia gird, main portion, be adequately energized before it can be used. So in both states the grid operator has to have more control: “the power to turn it off” refers not to physics, but authority to switch off household solar inverters under curtain circumstances. Far better would be to provide a useful sink for the excess electricity generated when that happens. Nobody as so far found such occasional demand centers.
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Post by Roger Clifton on Feb 15, 2022 12:48:49 GMT 9.5
Western Australia, is not on the national grid ... authority to switch off household solar inverters... Far better would be to provide a useful sink for the excess electricity generated when that happens. Yes, unlike South Australia, the West Australian grid ( SWIS ~2.5 GW) is truly isolated, and should be attracting the commentary from those who think that 100% renewable grids are possible. At 700 km across a lot of dry country, SWIS is able to find consistent sunlight somewhere during the day, and various wind sources. Consequently it is able to take up peak renewables of up to 50% demand, but that requires pulling back on the gas-fired and coal-fired steam generators. That is, the grid is saturated with renewables. Even so, renewables only supply 10% or so of annual consumption. (Which is probably why the enthusiasts don't point to SWIS as a success) You can watch the sources of production live, but remember to adjust to WA time zone (GMT+8). PS: I have been corrected elsewhere. The West Australian grid now has more than 60% renewables capacity and across 2021, 38% of consumption was supplied by renewables. That makes it all the more interesting to watch as renewables struggle to penetrate further. Finding intermittent consumers for intermittent production will always be difficult. However, SWIS does have a potential sink for intermittent power in intermittent large desalination plants. Global warming has moved the winter westerlies polewards, depriving WA of reliable rain, so desalination is increasingly necessary there and in other cities of southern Australia. Current plants use the fashionable reverse osmosis technology, but that requires continuous electricity, whereas the less fashionable but well-proven pumped-vapour systems are able to run relatively intermittently.
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Post by David B. Benson on Feb 18, 2022 3:44:18 GMT 9.5
Origin Energy to shut Australia’s largest coal-fired plant, Eraring Power Station, by 2025 Rhiana Whitson & Michael Janda 2022 Feb 17 ABC Australia www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-17/origin-to-shut-eraring-power-station-early/100838474Not only do the reporters fail to understand the difference between the physical concepts of energy and power, but it appears that also the NSW Energy Minister, Matt Kean, also does not. From this article one cannot really determine just what size utility scale battery is proposed for the Hunter region to “replace” the 2.88 GW power station.
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Post by Roger Clifton on Feb 23, 2022 18:18:11 GMT 9.5
Origin Energy to shut Australia’s largest coal-fired plant ...what size utility scale battery is proposed ...to “replace” the 2.88 GW power station. Origin Energy is a major gas-supplying and gas-burning Australian company. Almost certainly, it purchased the ageing coal burner so that it could close the power station and replace that capacity with gas-fired units elsewhere in the East Australian grid. With the increasing penetration of renewables, the implied demand for matching capacity of gas backup is allowing Origin Energy to increase (worsen) Australia's dependence on gas. In familiar doublespeak, both the reporter and the Minister want the public to believe that Australia is progressing towards 100% renewables-plus-batteries, so the trivial 700 MWh capacity of the gonna-be battery is misquoted as though it will be a significant power source of 700 MW. As elsewhere in the world, the public wants to hear of symbolic reductions so that we can forgive ourselves for continuing to emit much as usual.
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Post by David B. Benson on Mar 9, 2022 9:58:39 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Apr 29, 2022 5:39:06 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on May 2, 2022 12:40:33 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Jun 3, 2022 1:44:18 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Jun 8, 2022 7:50:41 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Jun 9, 2022 5:55:57 GMT 9.5
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Post by David B. Benson on Jun 17, 2022 5:51:35 GMT 9.5
Australian Energy Crisis Prompts Suspension of National Electricity Market Sonal Patel 2022 Jun 16 Power Magazine www.powermag.com/australian-energy-crisis-prompts-suspension-of-national-electricity-market/As usual, Sonal Patel explains even this mess with skill. There is an excellent graphic included showing just where the NEM generators are located. Briefly, there isn’t enough reserve so the market price often goes to (arbitrary) limit imposed by the grid operator. So the operator then requires, dictatorially, the operation of some off-line units. This is not an “efficient market” beloved by the economic theoreticians. Once again, I claim, we see that electric power does not form a “market” in the Adam Smith sense.
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