13 September 2017, The Conversation, More coal doesn’t equal more peak power. The proposed closure date for Liddell, AGL’s ancient and unreliable coal power station, is five years and probably two elections away. While AGL has asked for 90 days to come up with a plan to deliver equivalent power into the market, state and local governments, businesses and households will continue to drive the energy revolution. At the same time as AGL is insisting they won’t sell Liddell or extend its working life, government debate has returned to the Clean Energy Targetproposed by the Finkel Review. Now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is suggesting a redesign of the proposal, potentially paving the way for subsidies to low-emission, high-efficiency coal power stations. But even if subsidies for coal are built into a new “reliable energy target”, there’s no sign that the market has any appetite for building new coal. For a potential investor in a coal-fired generator, the eight years before it could produce a cash flow is a long time in a rapidly changing world. And the 30 years needed to turn a profit is a very long time indeed. We also need to remember that baseload coal power stations are not much help in coping with peak demand – the issue that will determine whether people in elevators are trapped by a sudden blackout, per Barnaby Joyce. It was interesting that a Melbourne Energy Institute studyof global pumped hydro storage mentioned that electricity grids with a lot of nuclear or coal baseload generation have used pumped storage capacity for decades: it’s needed to supply peak demand. Read More here
Tag Archives: Fed Govt
12 September 2017, Renew Economy, Turnbull’s energy obstructionism is Abbott’s climate denial revisited. There is a grim precedent for the Australian Coalition government’s decision to push for coal and ignore the majority of expert: the same government’s rejection of climate science. Like his predecessor, Tony Abbott, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is simply refusing to listen. Abbott said that climate science was “crap”, and Turnbull is saying the same thing in response to what he is being told by energy experts. To insist that extending the life of the Liddell coal-fired generator in the NSW Hunter valley is the only option available to keep the lights on is to simply ignore the advice of the Australian Energy Market Operator, as well as by the chief scientist Alan Finkel, the CSIRO, the owners of networks, the big gentailers and any number of individual experts and academics. AGL could not have made it any clearer, after the meeting with the PM on Monday, if it hadn’t already done so, about the state of the Liddell plant. For a government married to the concept of “baseload” power, it is an extraordinary decision to put its hopes on this piece of aged machinery. It makes no economic sense, no environmental sense, and is a potential engineering catastrophe. Turnbull and energy minister Josh Frydenberg have even picked up the Abbott-era sloganeering and name-calling: Blackout Bill, Brownout Butler and No-coal Joel (Fitzgibbon). You don’t need facts to play a game like this, in fact you are better off without them. Just ask Peta Credlin about the “carbon tax”. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the politicians wagging the tail of the dog on this issue are the very same who fought the science of climate change: Abbott, deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, ex resources minister Matt Canavan, environment committee head Craig Kelly, and around half of the back-bench. Read More here
11 September 2017, Renew Economy, AGL calls Coalition bluff on Liddell, focuses on solar, wind and storage. AGL Energy has called the bluff of the federal Coalition over the future of Liddell, pointing out that the ageing coal plant is unreliable, and stating its clear focus is on replacing the capacity with renewable energy and storage. CEO Andy Vesey agreed to take the government’s proposal to extend the life of the coal generator or sell it to the company board, but that commitment is likely to be nothing more than a face-saver for a Coalition government pushed into the realms of stupid by its desperation to appease its right wing and the Nationals. There is no way the AGL board would approve a proposal not favoured by Vesey, and the CEO clearly has other plans afoot, and they are all about renewables, peaking plants and storage. “Short term, new development will continue to favour renewables supported by gas peaking,” Vesey said after a meeting in Canberra with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, energy minister Josh Frydenberg, and deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. “Longer term, we see this trend continuing with large-scale battery deployment enhancing the value of renewable technology. In this environment, we just don’t see new development of coal as economically rational, even before factoring in a carbon cost,” Vesey said in a statement. And he made clear in this statement that Liddell would retire, as planned. “Following today’s meeting with the Prime Minister, we have committed to deliver a plan in 90 days of the actions AGL will take to avoid a market shortfall once the Liddell coal-fired power station retires in 2022.” And for good measure, he tweeted that line …. “once the Liddell coal-fired power station retires in 2022.” Read More here
11 September 2017, Renew Economy, The Turnbull-Frydenberg investment bank: Bullying, cronyism and Captain’s picks. Bullying, cronyism and Captain’s picks instead of policy. There is almost universal agreement that carbon policy is or should be a Federal issue. That is clearly something that the Federal Government should be involved in as it involves Australia’s international status and obligations. But that is the one area that the Federal Government is not touching. Despite Finkel, despite our COP 21 obligations, the Federal Government does nothing. No electricity policy, no vehicle emission standards, no policy in other areas of the economy responsible for half of Australia’s emissions. Perhaps the very worst thing, of the many to choose from, about the Liddell negotiation is the gross misuse of the AEMO report. This is only possible because the media is too busy, to put it kindly, to do its homework. The definition of a “problem” is when forecast “Unserved Energy (blackouts)” exceeds the desired reliability standard. That is not the whole story, but if you want one metric, it’s that. unfortunately, AEMO didn’t draw its graph relating to NSW all that clearly. We have attempted to do better, using the .xls data that AEMO provides. AEMO does not forecast a problem and if more renewables are built, the standard will be easily met. Read More here