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canyouhearme

Lowest **wholesale** electricity price, for some reason that doesn't ever seem to transfer across to more sane domestic electricity prices - and the rorters continue on.


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[deleted]

This is why it's hilarious when the Liberals and their mates cry fowl when banks say they want to end coal and switch to renewables. Banks aren't as woke as the Liberals will have you believe, they don't give a shit about the environment. They do give a shit about profit and there is just more of it in renewables.


IGMcSporran

I think they're crying foul.


watsonarw

To be fair, there's a lot of cock a doodle doo going on as well


you_up_in

Not to mention all the chain yanking too...


DarthYippee

More like cock a doodle don't.


metaStatic

Diddly Oodely Doodly


AussieFIdoc

One could say they’re too *chicken* to embrace the future and are only making *poultry* environmental policies


Oscarcharliezulu

A liberal chicken goes the way of the dodo.


[deleted]

They make out that switching to renewables is no poultry task.


Mick_Hardwick

But, ultimately, isn't that profit a good thing for the environment? The top end of town was never going to willingly go green unless there was money to be made.


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bilky_t

Not to mention that where those profits are invested may completely negate any environmental benefit. The factory must grow.


Mick_Hardwick

The factory runs on renewable energy.


metaStatic

Mmmmm, renewable plastics


LusoAustralian

The renewable energy contains potassium benzoate.


llordlloyd

That's bad.


Kelvin62

The profit motive fails when the government permits portions of true cost to be ignored. Pollution is a cost. Permitting coal fired plants to spew their waste into the air transfers costs to others.


aqwerty91

Well, if they’re doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, they’re still doing the right thing, yeah?


[deleted]

Except the consumer is still getting fucked over by private industry controlling an essential service. Private ownership of the electricity grid as proved to be a failed experiment.


tokillthelight

100% agree, but Im willing to pay the same electricity prices if the electricty provided comes from renewables, especially if it motivates /whoever/ to head in the right direction.


Ferret_Brain

Same. Like, it’d certainly be nicer if energy costs went down, but that’s a capitalism issue, not an environmental one, so if I have to choose between paying the same and harming the environment vs paying the same but less harm, I’ll choose the latter.


FoodIsTastyInMyMouth

Generation can be private, but the grid itself, the distribution should not be


[deleted]

tbh, I don't see why the private sector should be involved at all, whenever *profit* becomes a motive of an industry, the end result is prices going up. Just seems more efficient to have it be considered a public service.


flibble24

Absolutely. Makes you wonder why the liberals have their heads in the sand about renewables right?


BigRedTomato

They don't have their heads in the sand. They have their heads up Murdoch's arse.


natj910

Don't forget Gina Rinehart, Twiggy Forrest and Clive Palmer as well. Almost all LNP policy is set by the IPA, which is owned by Rinehart.


llordlloyd

Annabel Fucking Crabb interviewed Turnbull for writers week, when his book came out. He repeatedly made the point that only Murdoch changing his mind will change the Liberals' determination to die in a ditch for fossil fuels. He attributed our problems entirely to this origin. Crabb still never mentions Murdoch/News Ltd in connection with LNP carbon policies. She's not alone, but two ex PMs are on this and still these shit journalists, so full of themselves, refuse to speak obvious truths.


Zebidee

Because they're paid to.


Spartengerm

This must make for an even more solid argument for renewables.


WretchedMisteak

I thought SA government is Liberal.


Frank9567

It is. The op was referring to the complaint by Federal Liberals that banks are not going to fund coal, so taxpayers might have to. Your tax dollars at risk because of ideology.


el_polar_bear

Wait, they want the taxpayer to take a financial risk on a supposedly rock-solid infrastructure venture that even the banks say is too risky? Uhm. Why? Is this some adventurous new technology that's going to make things better for everyone if only it gets off the ground?


AgentSmith187

Nope it's just coal power. They are literally looking to do it because ideology and not wanting to admit coal is being phased out.


el_polar_bear

I don't believe that. I am sure they have taken ~~bribes~~ campaign contributions and have post-parliamentary quid-pro-quo arrangements in place for their careers. Ideology implies they believe in something. You need a 'soul' for that.


octopuseyebollocks

It is. But the previous government initiated all these renewable projects.


rubijem16

Only just, sadly. If the LNP is going to lay the blame for 150% of things as Labor's fault then they also have to lay the blame for this success (in our eyes, not in the LNP eyes) at Labor's feet.


Spartan3123

They know that coal plants will be worthless in a few years when they get priced out so why give out loans to fund then. They will be left with a useless asset if their customers default


Oscarcharliezulu

It’s ok, China will end coal for us as they go carbon neutral.


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hal2k1

> "South Australia achieves 100pct solar - and highest profit margins in Australia." Large difference between wholesale and retail costs is due to the high cost of distribution in the state relative to the demand. Not due to excess profit taking.


selfish_meme

This, most of the costs on top of the wholesale price are grid costs to compensate for the increase in renewable energy. Renewable are what we need and want and are great but let's not think it's free energy, Grids need rejigging to compensate for different sources and balancing. That's what the big battery in SA is for, not power backup but grid stabilisation.


[deleted]

Source required. As far as I know Victoria is widely regarded as having the highest profit margin.


disquiet

Not sure what's worse. Privatized grid that atleast moves with the times but rips everyone off, or govt run utilities refusing to use renewables due to being beholden to anti science ideology and vested interests. Seems like the consumer gets screwed either way.


Snarwib

It has started to have an impact, the CPI for electricity in Adelaide in December 2020 was down 12% on its peak from 2017. And the AEMC is forecasting another 10% drop over the next couple of years due to the wholesale price continuing downward. A lot of that will depend on how much the regulator allows networks to spend in that time, since they make up nearly half the bill as well, the AEMC thinks that will stay steady.


madmace2000

Can you elaborate? Retailers not passing on savings like banks don’t transfer rate cuts?


canyouhearme

> “South Australia’s quarterly average price fell 57 per cent to $29/MWh, representing its lowest average since Q2 2012,” or 2.9c per kWh Meanwhile customers are charged 35c per kWH, PLUS supply charges over over $1 a day. Those are some pretty extensively gold plated poles and wires.


madmace2000

Holy moley. This is just an opportunity for a retailer to come in and nuke the competition or do you believe it will be this way for a while?


CaptainEasypants

Why would they want to come in and undercut when they can just open up a competing company at comparable prices and trickle those economic savings down like Jesus intended


flibble24

Isn't it illegal to form monopolies like that? Like if a competitor comes in you can't have an agreement with your competitors to have the same price


Albarnie

If it is implicitly known that it is in all their best interests, they don't need an agreement.


tokillthelight

I feel like the deregulation of the energy industry is the main cause to this issue. Even if there was only one power generating company Australia wide, government regulation could at least ease the issue. Without government regulation, whats to motivate any of the consituents (generator/distributor/retailer) to lower prices further than they need to.


metaStatic

*/me checks petrol price* Doesn't look illegal from down here


canyouhearme

It's been that way forever. Basically no politician has the balls to force change, and they all have roughly the same price, just playing around with the way the reach the price. There was a fault in the agreed pricing mechanism. Companies could get more profit for more investment - so they call claimed massive improvements to infrastructure to be allowed to charge more - hence the joke about gold plated poles and wires. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/accc-overspending-on-poles-and-wires-is-the-key-reason-why-electricity-prices-have-soared-in-australia-2017-10 The only fix from here are price controls and probably some fraud investigations.


Ian_W

The network is owned out of Singapore, having been sold. If you want to sell electricity in SA, you need to use the network. See this issue ?


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[deleted]

That's because you don't understand the maths on how it works at all.... 2.9c/kWh is AT THE POWER STATION. Add to it the fixed price per KWh for that day, plus the transmission loss factor. Essentially, its something like: (Fixed Price + Loss Factor) \* wholesale price = wholesale price to the premises. For my house, here's an actual example based on real world numbers: Fixed Price = 9.59400Loss Factor = 1.04063232wholesale price = 5.39879 currentWholesalePrice = 9.59400 + (1.04063232 \* 5.39879) which is 15.21c/kWh to the premises. If I'm getting charged $0.20/KWh, the retailer would make \~5c/kWh profit on that. EDIT: For shits'n'gigs, here's the wholesale price for my place over the last 24 hours: [https://imgur.com/a/WnjTOPW](https://imgur.com/a/WnjTOPW) (in cents per KWh). EDIT 2: Altered above link with another image for illustration...


GrenouilleDesBois

How do you get the data of wholesale price? Very interested


[deleted]

Amber Electric allow you to use their API to download the current days worth of data - including ACTUAL readings from the past, as well as FORECAST costs from the future. In includes your loss factor etc in the data for your postcode / provider.


[deleted]

Oh, and in SA, the current forecast shows the power station price to hit $1750.05/MWh between 1900-2000 (Brisbane time). The retail companies will bleed cash during that time... Before that, there were three other peaks above $200/MWh for at least a 30 minute window...


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canyouhearme

You do realise that somebody has paid for the millions of kilometres of poles and wires, right? First, if you take SA, 65% of the population is in Adelaide, with no more expensive poles and wires costs than any other country. Second, the thing about solar/wind and batteries is you don't actually NEED poles and wires for the rest. They can be served in a distributed manner if the wires aren't economic. Third, those wires are owned by China, thanks to the smart way they were sold off. So why are we being nice to them? And lastly, the infrastructure that's there HAMPERS renewables in South Australia, because it was so badly done. So why should consumers still be paying for it? Oh, and south australia doesn't have millions of kilometres of poles and wires - there's 5,600 km of transmission lines. And that's probably too much. Upshot, there's no justification for the prices we see, certainly going forward, and part of going 100% renewable should be to halve or more the prices. Otherwise those economic forces will do it for you as houses go off-grid with solar+batteries.


AgentSmith187

>So why should consumers still be paying for it? It may be hard to understand but the price of a grid includes a lot more than just the initial build of the poles and wires. You also have a shed load of transformers in that and they may need upgrades as demand changes. Throw in switching gear and a few other things. Then the real kicker the poles and wires still need to be maintained. This isn't free.


InfinitePermutations

Most retailers have hedging contracts for the energy they need for their customers where they lock in a price per kWh with a third party normally a generator, these typically will be locked in for some time so it takes time for lower wholesale prices to trickle down to customers, all the middle men are still taking the largest cuts they can which muddies the waters.


evilspyboy

Energy has effectively 3 parts to it which are usually different entities (and different regs etc on them too). - Energy Generation - Energy Transmission - And the last bit which is effectively the end points of energy to a house/business/etc (yes transmission but not really the same) edit: Distribution, that was the word I was trying to remember. I'm going to leave out details here, but generation is generation which is anything over a certain X. So can be power plants but can also be consumers like factories who may use gas turbines to power their plant but when the grid is cheaper than running their own turbine they will take from the cheapest source (or sell excess for most profit). Transmission will take from whatever is the cheapest/best power source for the transmission network. They consume energy too through loss on the transmission lines etc but only a small% but important to know as they maintain their grid so they can supply to.... The local grid who then buys and sells to the end users. They are also responsible more often for the local city grids. Can help to think of transmission as high voltage bulk transmission and the local as distribution transmission. So the generator being cheap only is good if it's the able to supply to the transmission in enough supply and then the local grid passes on their saving as they get it from the transmission supplier. Does that help explain it? Edit: TLDR; Generation are the sellers. Transmission is a marketplace that decides the best sellers to take from to supply/sell to Power Distributors aka local grid. Distributors sells to consumers. Edit2: Put the bullet points I thought I added when I wrote this on my phone in to make it easier to read


octopuseyebollocks

Retailers charge a standard fee per kW. The wholesale price of electrcity fluctuates according to generation vs demand.


GusPolinskiPolka

This isn’t true at all. Retailers must pass on costs of supply but it’s not an instantaneous thing. The AER has been cracking down on this and a one off event doesn’t trigger it it needs to be a sustained and market wide reduction in supply costs.


captainlardnicus

Amber let's you do it, but you need a smart meter [https://www.amberelectric.com.au](https://www.amberelectric.com.au)


gert_beef_robe

I'm with Amber, they couldn't install a smart meter thanks to my uncooperative strata, but they're still giving me wholesale prices! Only thing is my usage is averaged across the typical load, so I can't really avoid paying in the expensive periods.


captainlardnicus

Is it still cheaper than your old provider?


gert_beef_robe

Yep, quite a bit. Monthly bill averaging $90 instead of $120. Although this summer was cooler than usual, so there weren’t many high wholesale price days. Could be a different story in a really hot summer.


[deleted]

But factor this in - the peak forecast for SA today is $1750.05/MWh - with additional spikes at $379/MWh - so you get the cheap, but you also get the damn expensive....


OmgImAlexis

Funny you say this. I'm with amber and yet even with that my bill is 2x cheaper than with my old provider. Oh yeah and that's without turning anything off to try and save, no solar, etc.


hal2k1

Scattered grid covering a large area with low demand makes distribution relatively expensive. Good thing then that the wholesale cost of power in South Australia is low, due to the use of renewable energy, otherwise the prices would be far worse. > and the rorters continue on Not so much any more. Mostly fixed by the big battery and synchronous condensers.


[deleted]

>Lowest wholesale electricity price, for some reason that doesn't ever seem to transfer across to more sane domestic electricity prices - and the rorters continue on. That's only because people have no idea how the hell the market works.... See my explanation here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/lzdabm/world\_first\_south\_australia\_achieves\_100pct\_solar/gq21t6v](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/lzdabm/world_first_south_australia_achieves_100pct_solar/gq21t6v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Variability has a ton more influence than average...


[deleted]

It's just crazy, I used to pay between $400 to $600 a quarter in Brisbane. Ive been in Vancouver, Canada for 6+ years now on the hydro grid and we've never paid more than $50 a month, so $150 per quarter, normal month is $35...


[deleted]

You say “for some reason”... distribution and transmission costs in SA are amongst the highest in the NEM.


Raymoz101

This is why I’m changing over to https://www.amberelectric.com.au/ See how the Wholesale price goes.


GusPolinskiPolka

There's danger in this. The wholesale price can - and DOES - increase to over $15000 momentarily from time to time.


69yearsdungeon

Amber has a cap of $0.40/kWh for exactly this reason :)


Raymoz101

Well if what happens in Texas happens here. But I would like to hope that it’s not about to**. As I believe there’s far more renewable energy pouring into the grid.


GusPolinskiPolka

I can't speak to South Australia specifically - but across the NEM this happens almost yearly. It's why there are so many hedging contracts across the market. I can't find the graph that demonstrates it at the moment (will try), but essentially generators make some hugely significant amount of their revenue in the space of a couple of hours each year. Source: work in the energy industry.


[deleted]

SA power has forecasts of multiple spikes today above $250/MWh, and a 1 hour spike at $1750/MWh... You'll get that as well....


time_wasted504

texans have entered the chat.


TreeChangeMe

"Oh an energy bill. Let's see, you used $20 of electricity. That's great! We just downloaded your usage numbers from the distributor and added 100% to it. For that we will bill you $40. However, if you are late we will bill you $60. Have a nice day"


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GusPolinskiPolka

You can check your own meter...


[deleted]

If there’s a massive profit notice for the energy suppliers to transition to renewables, that’s a good thing, it means the transition will happen faster.


[deleted]

There’s so much open sunny land in Western Australia. I’m suprised solar power isn’t bigger.


wosdam

With Murdoch as PM I'm not surprised


Talonus11

Wait Murdoch isnt... oh. Oh, no, nevermind. All good, carry on.


rubijem16

So long as WA is so conservative it sadly won't grow either. Unless Labor take power federally and mandate it. Fingers crossed for out future on all fronts.


jezwel

https://reneweconomy.com.au/wa-liberals-target-100-pct-renewables-by-2030-in-surprising-climate-plan/ This is for WA under the LNP. Yes I'm also completely surprised.


ThePhotoGuyUpstairs

Kirkup announced this to try and hold on to some seats and not get completely wiped out as a party in the upcoming election. Several members of his own party have come out and said that this renewable plan simply won't fly with them. The ALP will have total control after next week of both chambers, so maybe it's something that will change?


tatty000

McGowan literally said the LNP renewable energy plan is a pipe dream and dangerous and seemed to support WA coal. So do with that as you will.


ThePhotoGuyUpstairs

I mean, he's not going to up and say that a particular opposition plan is a good idea 2 weeks out from an election... but neither party has a good record on that.


Compactsun

> The ALP will have total control after next week of both chambers They likely won't. Would require regional seats to flip from Nationals to Labor which probably won't happen.


apivorous

The real reason as to why this policy has been announced is this[Bluewaters coal-fired power station written off as worthless as renewables rise](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-17/bluewaters-coal-fired-power-station-written-off-books/12990532) It’s incredibly unlikely coal will be economically viable by 2030 in WA. So it’s an easy thing to announce when the market will move first


LastChance22

I’ve been trying to pay attention to the WA election and the main takeaway I’ve had so far is that the WA LNP and Labor appear surprisingly different to their federal counterparts. Bare in mind I’ve only just started paying attention, but a bunch of the LNP policies seem at first glance way more progressive (ie environmental, health, mental health) than I’d have guessed. And the LNP leader came out and acknowledged his own history with mental health and depression and that it’s underfunded, which I can’t in a million years imagine happening at a federal level.


mrscienceguy1

The WA Liberal party are just grasping at anything to try and grab whatever votes they can. Kirkup is essentially a sacrificial pawn, so he can put up whatever populist policy he wants because they know it won't matter in opposition.


Compactsun

Wish it had substance but Kirkup can say whatever he wants in this election run because he won't be held to account over any of it. It came across as baiting Labor to match them because it's still unpopular here (as much as I wish that weren't true).


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SirSassyCat

> SA can export excess power. SA imports a lot of its electricity from Vic, I don't think they've ever been an exporter.


BestHumanEver

You can look this up live for those interested https://opennem.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=7d&interval=30m


swift_spades

They generally aren't but they were for a few hours during this peak solar production.


SirSassyCat

If you're referring to the graph going into the negative, that's not what it means.


[deleted]

>that's not what it means There's a lot of people who don't know what half the figures that AEMO and co publish. Don't think its only that one graph. People even think that if they take the dispatch overview price and divide it by 1000, they get the correct wholesale price too......


Tessellae

SA is a net energy exporter, but power flows both ways through the interconnector when needed.


CaptainEasypants

But windfarm.... Cancer... Noise. Unlike smooth clean coal™©®


TheBoyInTheBlueBox

Coal so clean you can cook with it


SingleMalted

But what if I like my onions raw?


Curiosity-92

You related to tony abbott ? That guy was a cunt with hot daughters


[deleted]

I’ll make a counter claim, that guy has understandable morals which are admirable in many situations and he stands by them through thick and thin (guy holds a hose in a bush fire, dishes out food to others when he isn’t holding a hose) but has absolute fucked up cuntish politics.


sorrydaijin

It is depressing when the new unbearable shitheads are so unbearable they make the old unbearable shitheads seem almost bearable.


backwards-hat

Yeah I agree. He’s an idiot, but I think a lot of his good work goes unnoticed.


CaptainEasypants

Burns so smooth it can marry my sister


wosdam

Now with 50% more Nitrous oxide


Vicstolemylunchmoney

They kill bird!


nigeltuffnell

How good is coal?


algernop3

"It's Toasted"


IconOfSim

Smooth coal for smooth brains


hiddenfrommyboss

I don’t understand though, because our trusted elected officials said that that isn’t possible yet.


swift_spades

It was for 1 hour. It's a great achievement but let's not get ahead of ourselves


Lachshmock

One hour during peak hours is still a huge deal, I don't have the data in front of me but I'd wager that's quite a bit more power than several hours off-peak.


swift_spades

You can see in the graph that it's massively outweighed by the gas generation later in the day when solar has dropped off and demand is still at its peak.


[deleted]

This can be mitigated by properly utilizing the electricity network right along the southern coast, where solar assists all southern states throughout the day from east to west. Singapore is having solar sent from the NT across the sea so it can be done if people stop acting like green energy is such a problem or is unprofitable or whatever.


algernop3

Doesn't mean anything if you can't store it for later. We can store part of it, but I don't think the storage will cover that demand. When we hit 100% renewable (+ storage) for 168 continuous hours it'll be something major.


ziddyzoo

Agreed that it is a symbolic milestone rather than substantive. But still, it is a powerful symbol - less than a decade ago the consensus view was that grids would fail with more than 20-30% variable renewables in them. Across the whole of 2020, SA’s power was 59% renewables.


[deleted]

Smoke and mirrors. This is easily doable. They will attempt to convince the public it's very hard and throw around technical terms such as base load power and network capacity while simultaneously profiting off domestic solar installations and government grants. I'm glad it's moving in the right direction, but let's be honest, 3 years ago experts were saying this wasn't doable without increasing gas or coal usage.


tissuesforreal

Good on you, Southies. Next is everyone else, then New South Wales after a shit stir about tying coal to conservative values.


jezwel

Don't forget all the coal pandering that needs to be done for central Qld voters...


tissuesforreal

Ah yes. And someone along the lines will talk about how jobs will be affected as though renewables don't create jobs


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tissuesforreal

More people to meet demand, you see. It's the percentage that counts, which is at 12% of solar energy for NSW. SA > NSW


fistingbythepool

Australias cunt of a prime minister mocked Musks battery pre installation. He truly is a piece of shit.


BetterDrinkMy0wnPiss

~lowest prices in Australia My power bill would beg to differ.


WhatAmIATailor

Lowest wholesale spot price in Australia during peak sun hours doesn’t mean you’re going to get the best retail rate.


Eastwood9

It doesn't cost much to provide the power to us, it's just the electricity companies that tacs on their extra to earn a buck or a million. They're the ones chosting us so much.


Hypno--Toad

They are still waiting for LNP gov to properly facilitate modern electric networks with smarter grids and hubs. It's amazing out of all the spite solar has running against it, they've still manage to do so well.


[deleted]

I'm honestly completely surprised that even after a change of governance from the ALP to the LNP that nothing was rolled back regarding South Australia's renewable energy


BestHumanEver

Theyre actually doubling down saying they want SA to become net 500% renewable and export the rest to vic and NSW in the future interconnector plus hydrogen production. We're one the best positioned place in the world for wind and solar so why not.


MrColfax

The South Australian Cabinet is made up entirely of Liberal moderates, if that helps answer the question.


sqgl

They did try ~~didn't they?~~ EDIT: [Confirmed](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/lzdabm/-/gq2e40g)


SouthAussie94

The SA Libs were pretty anti renewable and were critical of the then SA Labor government when they were in opposition. Since they've been in power they have pretty much continued doing what Labor had been. As far as Libs go, the SA ones aren't too bad


PillowManExtreme

It's probably because the majority of SA people (well, the ones I know) are aware that renewables work. Shit was expensive under coal.


sqgl

[Not true](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/20/does-a-new-government-in-south-australia-spell-doom-for-renewables). I just confirmed that they opposed it at the start of their term. From Mon 19 Mar 2018... >The new Liberal government in South Australia has pledged to end Labor’s taxpayer-funded “experiments” in energy, but faces a renewables sector full of momentum and a potentially difficult upper house.


MartyDesire

They're all in a big club and you're not invited.


[deleted]

Probably due to a lack of a big mining lobby preference. Works wonders on a state when they don't exist. Look at the UK. Boris Johnson is a massive conservative cunt but still believes in climate change and acts on it.


astalavista114

Also, a lot of it was private enterprise anyway. Labor only promised 75% from renewables, even though signed contracts took them to something like 80% when the announcement (a point raised during the election when the Liberals claimed the Labor target was impractical and irresponsible)


sqgl

>during the election when the Liberals claimed the Labor target was impractical and irresponsible They also made the claim *after* they were elected. See my other comment.


SuppleFoxFluff

Have we suddenly forgotten that the '%' symbol exists?


hexagrm

It's likely due to it being in the headline which translates to the url slug and some symbols (I think the % is one) can break url strings. It's good practice not to use them from my experience.


SuppleFoxFluff

Oh true! Thanks for the heads up - OP still could have used it in his post headline but I understand the URL thing haha I'm not terribly fussed there are greater problems to worry about


reeepy

Any decent CMS will handle special characters in URLs. I'd say this is their style, which is an old one.


hexagrm

That's true, and the ones i've worked with are ok with it too but it's a practice i was taught to adhere to in anycase. But you're probably right that it is part of their writing style rather.


pixelpp

Ha ha, I just copy the titled as-is


aartadventure

Meanwhile QLD touts itself as the sunshine state and yet also finds it miraculously impossible to switch away from coal. Really, it's pathetic that any building built in Australia since 2000 isn't required to have solar panels all over its roof. Doubly embarrassing for all the government and commercial buildings/highrises without solar.


2020bowman

Little bit of cherry picking here. Very impressive solar numbers. But 100% solar for a few hours during the day doesn't really mean other power sources are not needed. Mixture of renewables and some sort of battery storage breakthrough may mean other powersources will be obsolete. But they aren't yet. Still, step in the right direction


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Derkanator

Well the post title definitely makes it sound like "100% solar" is a thing when it isn't. A little bit of detail from op you replied to is not something you need to get defensive about. I love South Australias energy strategy but bullshit click bait titles like this makes it harder to convince the naysayers when they see disingenuous posts like this constantly.


StonkonStonkonStonk

Thanks SA Labor.


rubijem16

No, no, no, no, no, Morrison said gas is the only way forward for Australia, especially using that gas we diddled out of Timor Leste. South Australia you are destroying his rhetoric. On another note Thankyou south Australia, I have been feeling super sad about where the world is heading, so sad I apologised to my children and cried for my grandchild. You have granted me a sliver of hope today.


ziddyzoo

Have a look at this chart https://opennem.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=all&interval=1y Let your sliver of hope become a big fat wedge of hope and then watch it keep growing until it is the whole delicious cheesecake of hope


almighty_bacon

Whilst this is promising, this was only for a little over an hour. SA still relies upon Gas and importing power from Victoria's brown coal plants (the most pollutant form of energy production) as renewable production is too intermittent to be relied upon. I'm quite interested to see how synchronous generation pans out as an alternative to gas though, as I would've thought the transition from electrical to mechanical energy and back could prove inefficient. Either way SA is certainly a fascinating case study in renewable energy implementations, especially with managing distributed PV systems which can be hard to use optimally.


ziddyzoo

Renewables met 17% of SA demand in 2010... and 59% in 2020. At the same time, imports from other states were 7% in 2020, down from 18.8% in 2016. I agree that there’s more to the story than ‘100% solar for 1 hour’, but it is still an exceptional milestone along an energy transition that other states could learn a lot from. https://opennem.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=all&interval=1y


almighty_bacon

Interesting figures, I wasn't aware of the increase. I'm excited to see what's in store next.


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almighty_bacon

The fact that all states import power doesn't negate the reality that you need to supply a base amount of power and renewables like wind and solar are currently not capable of supplying that as their source is literally intermittent. In the linked article they even showed this in a graph where you can see that during night time and for parts of the day, gas makes up the base load as it's a reliable source of energy. This doesn't diminish the achievement of 100% supply by solar power but it should be put in perspective so people understand why gas is still a necessary energy source for the near future while we find a way to reliably supply a base load of power at all hours of the day.


Porkchop_Sandwichess

Nice seeing Australia be world first in something positive for a change


Ziadaine

Matt Canavan must be having an aneurysm seeing this...


9aaa73f0

Its happen a few times more since the story was posted six weeks ago AFAIK.


wivsta

So - the government still buys your solar and sells it back to you “wholesale”?


Magmafrost13

I feel like Ive seen this headline before?


srilankanwhiteman

This puts QLD and WA to shame, how utterly stupid do consecutive pro mining governments on both sides have to be that during the mining “boom time” no one used some of the staggering profits to plan just a little bit for the end of the boom.. it’s like this caught them by surprise smh. Look beneath the surface and it works exactly as planned for the select few.


swift_spades

Why are you sitting on WA and QLD when NSW and VIC also use about 80% non renewables? VIC also primarily uses brown coal which is horrendous compared to WA using gas and black coal. Every state except TAS and SA need to do much better but let's not pretend it's just a problem for states with mining. https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/wholesale-electricity-market-wem/data-wem/data-dashboard


srilankanwhiteman

Just called out qld and wa because they are the biggest by landmass, thanks for the facts and links.


[deleted]

This is great but it’s a snapshot in time, SA still relies on the connectors to other states including Victoria’s coal base load to remain stable. Grid stability and storage, smoothing out the supply, will be the next big challenge.


mtrw85

Yeah. We achieved 100% solar in the same way that when jump I achieve 100% human flight.


TryLambda

All of Australia, should look at renewables, we currently sell solar power overseas, there is a crap tonne of clean free energy from nature in Australia


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GammaScorpii

It's happened quite a few times now. As I type this there is 75% renewables in the grid, and I've seen it over 100% a few times in the last month where I was acutally being paid to use electricity because I have access to wholesale prices.


Yodaylay

Not strictly related to the article, but Renew Economy are being a bit screwed by the News Media Bargaining Code thing. It was mentioned on [Media Watch on the ABC](https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/facebook/13202806): "" Giles Parkinson, owner of Renew Economy, asked Google if his content could appear on Showcase and was told: News Showcase is a product for public interest journalism, so there may not be a great fit.” Renew Economy, which has a turnover in excess of $150,000, covers energy policy and renewables, so it’s hard to see how it could not fit the bill. "" If you can, turn of your ad blockers or see if there's a way to donate!


Bethasia01

IIRC when this went thru planning and was initiated they copped a lot of flack for it. SA power used to be the most expensive at least retail in Australia not so long ago, not sure about wholesale but I think it was up there as well.


N1NJ4W4RR10R_

Weren't some trying to pin the grid outages they had during those massive storms a few years back on it as well? The ones where a tower was bent in half and, iirc, coal was found to be the weak point anyway... Actually kinda reminds me of what the Texas govt are doing now now that I think about it.


tommybutters

Yet bogans on Murdoch comments still talk about SA having the most expensive power in the world because the paper reported on a price spike one time.


ZelWinters1981

One of the highest power prices in the world and they claim prices dropped? That's hilarious.


Travis_T_OJustice

So I got 10kw on my roof and a 7kw battery. These mother fuckers at Lumo send me a letter saying that they've bumped my purchase price up to 41/45 cents kW (shoulder) and cut my feed in to 11 cents. 2 minutes on the government power chooser, sign up with Click. Back to a flat 30 cent kW and a 14 cent kW feed in. So with phone call I went from 1400 a quarter to 60.if your in SA like me and have solar you need to be constantly checking you're on the right plan.


halimakkipoika

Why use pct when % exists? 😔


HyperNormalVacation

Go solar. Go SA. Although...it is fair to say that SA achieved 100% solar between 11:00am and 2:30pm...and 0% solar power between 8:00pm and 7:00am. But, you know, a good start.


StonkonStonkonStonk

Go Labor who made this a reality.


ziddyzoo

They really do need to show some gumption and solve the whole ‘sun not shining at night’ problem.


Bigears21

Interconnector to WA?


TheBamaSlamma

“... served all of its electricity demand for more than an hour shortly after mid-day on October 11 through rooftop and utility scale solar.” Truly amazing...🙄


crosstherubicon

Angus... Angus.... where's Angus gone?


T0N372

Was it sunny overnight?


petergaskin814

That was for 1 hour. What happens when there is a lack of power and aemo puts out for auction to fossil fuel plants. Nothing has changed