Audrey Zibelman
No wonder our national electricity grid is in deep. Audrey Zibelman is the CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). The former New York based woman is a lawyer with an MBA who thinks we can change the weather with our power supply. She was appointed in March 2017. Thank Malcolm Turnbull. Apparently in 2016 she was a favourite for the future Team Hillary in the US.
Audrey the activist
Just to make her motivation clear. Her words last year:
“I believe we’re the last generation on earth who can really do something about climate change.“
The manager of our electricity market thinks wind and solar are actually competitive:
And the good thing is that technology has evolved so that we don’t have to worry about sacrificing economics for good environmental policy.”
Notably, what she isn’t dreaming of is cheap electricity:
Her dream is of a grid dominated not by big power suppliers and their fossil-fuel generators, but rather a system of “distributed energy” that delivers better supply security by storing solar and wind power in batteries for later use. She wants a market that better rewards people with rooftop solar panels and other renewables; with incentives for more efficient power use in peak times; that harnesses idle energy, instead of building more large power stations for short periods of peak demand in hotter months.
You might think the Australian national grid should be providing electricity rather than being a tool to reward people for buying uneconomic equipment in the hope of stopping Antarctica from melting. Silly you.
Oops? How do you mistake a 100% artificially forced transition with a natural one
Zilbelman talks about the energy transition as if it is some natural change thrust upon us, instead of an artificial bubble, like a giant marshmallow man, inflated entirely and pumped relentlessly by government dollars to keep it from collapse:
Resisting energy transition like trying to resist internet says Zibelman
“This is not a judgement about anything. It’s just the reality that the economics have changed, and technology has changed, and resisting this change is a little like trying to resist the internet. It’s just going to happen because of where technology is going.”
How many governments had to offer $5 billion in subsidies to convince people to try the internet? Zero.
Note from Jo:
Hope to see you in Sydney in two weeks!
I’ll be speaking at in Sydney with Ian Plimer in a few weeks at the ATA Friedman18 conference. That’s a rare event.
See an amazing line up of speakers on May 25-27 in Sydney, or come for the dinner or drinks sessions.
Get a 10% discount with the code Nova18.
Zibelman hasn’t done any research. Everywhere government subsides are withdrawn, renewable investors flee the market at light speed. In Germany, after 20 years of subsidies, half to three quarters of the wind industry was forecast to disappear as the subsidies end and another 80,000 solar jobs are gone. It happened in Australia too where 97 percent of renewables investment suddenly dried up without subsidies.
Audrey Zibelman — a lawyer with a BA and MBA
At university, she spent no years studying physics, chemistry or engineering.
- Doctor of Law (JD) [Hamline University School of Law]
- Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) [Penn State University]
- MBA [University of Minnesota]
But she did marry an electrical engineer:
Her husband, Phil Harris, is the chief executive officer of Tres Amigas, a New Mexico-based company that is seeking to raise more than $1 billion to connect the nation’s electric grids and allow for greater growth of clean energy.
Which raised other questions in 2015. Journalists asked about potential conflicts of interest with her then role as head of the NY Public Service Commission. After that, she recused herself. h/t Beachside at Catallaxy.
June 16, 2015: ALBANY—As New York’s top energy regulator, Audrey Zibelman is in a position to influence a market worth billions of dollars and help set the policy that governs it. At the same time, Zibelman, who worked in the private sector before Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed her chairwoman of the state Public Service Commission in 2013, has unusually close ties to energy companies vying for work in New York.
She cofounded Viridity Energy which sold software to help people with batteries and panels minimize their electricity bills. How uneconomic are batteries? It would only take $60-90 billion to back up South Australia. Yes, 100% renewable is possible — though not at the same time as having an economy.
The issue is “not technology” says the non-technologist
Storage, price, efficiency, frequency stability? Wave a magic wand, other people who understand these things will definitely absolutely solve this and with other people’s money.
Zibelman also believes she is in the best place to solve them. “The issue is not so much the technology; technology is happening,” she said. “It’s the regulatory regimes and the market regimes that need to be adapted to the future power system.”
It’s all just a question of rules. If we change the system and don’t worry about how much it costs, anything can be solved. We just need to use the right language when we talk to baby electrons.
Zibelman was apparently on Hillary Clinton’s hot-list:
One of Hillary Clinton’s hot picks to lead the United States Department of Energy has been appointed as chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, as part of the political and corporate exodus in the wake of Donald Trump’s upset election victory.
No surprise then, that she was so appealing to Turnbull who is on the same side of politics as Hillary.
For the record, AEMO is 60% owned by taxpayers
Just so we all know who is ultimately responsible for the AEMO:
AEMO is a public private partnership between government, which owns 60% and industry members (including generators, transmission companies, retail and distribution businesses, resource companies, and investment companies) who own 40%. AEMO operates on a cost recovery basis as a company limited by guarantee under the Corporations Act (2001). AEMO fully recovers its operating costs through fees paid by participants.
I was unable to find the salary package used to tempt her to move to Australia. From the 2017 AEMO Annual Report, total wages and salaries of their employees add up to $76m (unless I am reading page 56 incorrectly –can someone familiar with accounting check?)
Why do they lie so much?
Why do they expect to be believed?
Why does Malcolm want to lose the election so much?
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The guvmint has appointed Audrey Zibelman to be the fall guy, as they phase out of renewable subsidies, but if Labor wins the next election then we’ll be in a sorry state.
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No need for subsidies if you can make RULES instead; eg 50% of all electricity must be sourced from either wind or solar!
She sounds very bad to me.
Hardly anyone in the parliament is listening, nor do they have a clue what they are doing..
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The ginger group is having an impact on Morrison and Turnbull, they have six months to get their act together.
Politicians can’t be trusted, but its all we have, the other side is loopy.
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The only ones in the LNP that have even half a clue are on the backbench. The ministry are clueless and will follow Turnbull over the cliff. If only the backbench had the guts to quit and join the ACP to force an election and make people think for once. The ACP can still support the LNP but only if the LNP decides to change policies to those of the more sensible ACP. If not the the LNP might as well go to hell.
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‘If only the backbench had the guts to quit and join the ACP to force an election and make people think for once.’
Can’t see that happening, so do you have a Plan B?
The Coalition ginger group first needs to be educated on climate change, then they could force a bloodless coup.
Morrison’s attempt at appeasement, phasing out renewable subsidies from 2020 is not good enough, and we need to start building coal fired power stations quickly.
The MSM would go berserk, so I suggest the new Ministry should organise a scientific Blue Team with a lukewarm bent, to bring the masses down lightly.
Regional cooling has already commenced and we have been caught with our pants down, I want a revolution and I want it now.
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Your description of Plan B would be nice indeed. In fact it ought to be plan A and my solution would be Plan B. Plan C is crash and burn followed by a new and better party headed by a true visionary and believer in our nation’s future, not some egotistical mad person like we have had in the past and now in both major parties.
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Cory has solar panels on his roof, which indicates that he may lack vision. Can’t remember the last time he mentioned climate.
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Nothing wrong with having solar panels to be more self-sufficient. If I had the money I would too. His policies on how to support base load power are what matters and looking at them they make a lot more sense than those of the two major parties.
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‘His policies on how to support base load power are what matters ….’
That is only of material consideration, what about the hearts and minds of the masses?
When he came back after the Trump election victory he hoped the charisma might rub off, but unfortunately he dropped the ball on climate change and lost his relevance.
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Then start it.
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By voting informally I was being revolutionary.
‘Angry voters are turning their backs on the two major political parties in a powerful trend that could help decide the next election, according to new research on the issues driving a growing group of disaffected Australians.’
SMH
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Peter C. Correct, you have found the fatal flaw in the system. Here is a part of it: “AEMO fully recovers its operating costs through fees paid by participants.” Nowhere in here did I see any limitations on these fees.
Here is the second part of it. The Clintons have the reverse Midas Touch coupled with an insatiable lust and greed.
From Benghazi to Haiti to the USA everything the Clintons touch is corrupted (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Cash )
It pains me to see Clintonistas spreading around the world.
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What do you mean if? Turnbull thinks he can win Labor swingers with a Labor-lite nu-green brave new world heartfelt kabuki play.
The show must go on.
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If Wind and solar are competitive with coal,then get rid of all the hidden subsidies that WE are FORCED to pay.Then stand back and watch the fun when they ALL collapse.
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eg @ #1.1
I doubt the fall guy idea. What I see is a government at internal war with itself. The Turnbullites appointed this CEO. The coalition partners The Nationals are surely pulling the levers that have brought a reduction in future subsidies.
The Nats surely have not forgotten, and must not forget, that the original proposal for an ETS, which but for the input of Barnaby Joyce would have been adopted with bipartisan support by the Howard government, intended to tax Agriculture’s recycled “emissions” on the same basis as fossil emissions, studiously refusing to allow credits for the carbon sequestered by agriculture’s carbon cycle.
This multiple taxation would have quickly bankrupted the agricultural sector, rendering farmland valueless, thereby enabling the government to transfer that land into new ownership without compensating current owners. And they nearly got away with it!
This might well have been a big enough event to destroy our whole financial system.
NB had a post about “smart” people in Unthreaded which is very relevant here.
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Thanks Ted, its fair to say the Nats are ginger men.
https://theconversation.com/the-nationals-have-changed-their-leader-but-kept-the-same-climate-story-92348
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A Phd student in Manchester. A good place to get out of!
That said, without reading the links, he tells it better than the locals.
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It’s the monetary/banking, one-world guvmint;Turnball is playing his part and we are being subverted,whiteanted .Thats it,I’m self-electing myself for supreme leader!!
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“I believe we’re the last generation on earth who can really do something about climate change.“
This is true. The next generation is going to think that the entire idea was silly.
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This is no lie. It is both accurate and prescient. They had their crack at fooling the World. There will never be another
generation“opportunity” that has been so comprehensively indoctrinated, propagandised and rinsed with UNEP eco-marxist dogma. They are failing and they will fail completely as they have failed recurrently and reliably throughout history since Marx and Gentile. The trick will be to ensure it doesn’t cost millions of dead. So far, the excess death by winter power impoverishment of the UK is running in the tens of thousands. The developing World doubtless also has its burden of eco-death. There is a price and there will be a day of reckoning.Economic destruction in any name deprives all of freedom and prosperity. The sheeple are stirring.
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Audrey is obviously a CIA plant. She’s been put in place to sabotage Australia’s international competitiveness and give a boost to the economy of our competitor the USA.
Coal is king and Australian coal is the supreme power.
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Sam, how many countries benefit if Australia doesn’t use coal to generate electricity but does keep exporting it.
Put another way — is there any foreign country that would prefer we had cheap electricity? (Answer is probably a few small south pacific nations who need our foreign aid).
I’m just saying there are plenty of other sources of mischief, but for the record, I don’t see any need for Zibelman to have any other agenda here than what is probably a very tidy salary package. Plus if she genuinely believes in the climate changey stuff, and in the miraculous technology wand, she has plenty of reasons to want to showcase Australia to the world.
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Yes Jo. All competitor economies benefit if Australia doesn’t use coal to produce electricity. Put another way – there are no competitor economies that would prefer their competitors to have a cost advantage that flows from cheap power.
Audrey’s operation puts more lead in the saddlebag of Australian manufacturing industry. International competitiveness is lost as a result.
There are many strings to this anti-capitalist, free-market bow. AEMO is just one of them. Another is the sabotage of Australian coal exports – Adani being the most recent case in point. There are others.
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Oops.
Anti-free-market bow.
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Jo. Beware. There is always an agenda with Clintonistas.
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Jo, she can try to showcase us to the world but the world will not listen. China for example will just look at her as a fool and continue to build hundreds of coal fired power stations in so many places around the world. The point is if she really believed what she says then she should not have come to Australia but have gone to China to convince them what we are already doing, namely not to build any more coal fired power stations. Of course she chose Australia because it’s a soft target where she doesn’t have to do anything to rake in a good salary. In China she probably would have ended up in prison where she belongs.
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Jo, I think the ancient Aztec priests pretty much figured they could showcase their power to the world…..
You get the sense we are to be “sacrificed” as a nation, on the altar of CAGW….
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Australia has not had a recession since June 1991.
We in the US thank you for taking
a clueless-on-climate-science,
three time loser off our hands:
(1) Doctor of Law (JD)
(2) Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
(3) MBA
Thank you.
Please keep her.
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Oh dear, an over-educated idiot.
[1:]BA = Beggar All (could probable recite Homer’s classical poetry in its original Greek)
[2:]MBA = Mega Beggar All ( see `Begger All’ and can write a financial analysis of the worth lf Homer’s poetry with a complete breakdown of the costs involved in producing it
[3]; JD = Jabberwocky Declamation – a certificate granted for spouting Carroll’s Jabberwocky in full.
All the above degrees are so immensely appropriate, fitting, relevant, compatible, accordant, meet and preparatory, not to mention a requirement for every job top level appointment in a Technical and Engineering (Electrical) discipline. Not.
It’s my expectation, the recognition of which side of a written page holds the content wouldn’t be difficult but with all judgement enwrapped in pure propaganda, grasping the end of a live wire could wreak havoc.
Definition of terms:
1. idiot n: (from L: idiota; GR: idiotes) a private person, hence one who is ignorant and not an expert;
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</sarc>
Oops … Forgot.
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Could we have her arrested on charges of terrorism? She is certainly a foreign terrorist, by definition. She definitely wants her green religion to become the dominant religion in Australia, and is more than happy to do major damage to our economy. Should I call in Borderforce, or dial 000 ???
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Yea, $76 million in wages. There is no section in the report stating her wage.
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Craig:
I notice, as I am sure you did, that the cost of wages has gone up 10.5% in a year and cost of employees is up by 12.0%.
I wonder in the current economy what non-government company could afford that?
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Graeme,
I did see that and obviously employee wages are keeping pace with CPI (unlike private sector). Doesn’t tell us how many employed in this area either.
Could not see any indication of her wages anywhere on other websites so obviously keeping this on the low.
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No Craig, the wages package is massively outstripping CPI.
CPI. Mar Qtr 2017 to Mar Qtr 2018
All groups CPI, seasonally adjusted = 1.9%
Something is out of kilter here.
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I know Sam, that public employee wages are probably more than CPI, which is my point about public vs private CPI increases. One follows in line and quite often, the other doesn’t, I have never received a wage increase in line with CPI in 25 yrs of private sector work.
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Thanks Craig and Graeme — helpful.
– I would be interested if anyone has ideas of how to find out information on salary packages.
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Page 56 of the 2017 annual report says “…AEMO is income tax exempt AEMO is income tax exempt on the basis that it qualifies as a public authority constituted under an Australian law…”, and it’s 60% government owned, so what about a Freedom of Information request to…I’m not sure actually, maybe the Department of the Environment and Energy..?
Not sure what to ask for though, maybe the minutes of meetings from the AEMO “People and Remuneration Committee” for the last XX years…?
They’d have to submit paperwork to ASIC or similar too, wouldn’t they?
Page 73 lists “Key management personnel compensation”. It looks like nice work being a director of a company that effectively cannot fail…
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Page 73 of AEMO annual report:
Directors compensation $1,250,000 – about 10 of them, so $125,000 each.
Key management personnel compensation $3,909,000. Add long term benefits $670,000.
Pages 10-13 list executive team as:
Audrey Zibelman CEO and MD
David Swift Advisor to CEO
Cameron Parrotte Executive GM Strategy
Peter Geers Executive GM Markets
Damien Sanford Executive GM Operations
Jo Witters Executive GM Innovation
Brett Hausler Secretary & General Counsel
Karen Olesnicky Interim Executive GM Technology (now Joe Locandro)
Jack Fitcher CFO
Joe Adamo Executive GM Public Affairs
That’s 10 of them so average Salary $390,000, give Audrey $800,000, the rest average $345,000. Plus long term benefits $67,000 each.
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Who could afford that? a mostly Govt funded company.
If wages are roughly rising at 2% and salary costs have risen 10% at the time of Zibelmans arrival you can bet her package is taking a far chunk of it, in the absence of any commentary on one time expnses or staffing increases.
If you think its a lot of money it is not in the expat world at that level. Items such as relocation expenses, base, performance bonuses, housing, family visits and possibly home travel to the US and a set aside for a golden parachute could all be there.
The think to watch is what it returns to next report once that bubble passes through the system.
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If wages are rising by 2% then it’s probably due to the public service. Out in the real world, I’ve seen no rise in pay for over 5 years. OK I’m not a doing-it-hard blue collar worker but it is true my income has seen steady erosion while this woman’s ilk has continually raised energy costs.
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Here she is …
https://stopthesethings.com/2017/10/02/american-lunatics-destroying-australias-power-supply-aemo-head-audrey-zibelman-pushes-ret-suicide-pact/
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“I believe we’re the last generation who can really do something
about climate change.”
Wrong on so many fronts, Audrey. Say, will no one rid us of this
troublesome priest-hood?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRuqPKcxMZY
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You know, they can now de-ice whirlygigs using drones. Of course, nobody’s worked out a way to manufacture whirlygigs or drones (or anything much at all) without those naughty hydrocarbons.
But in Zibelmanland, odd combo of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, there are the hydrocarbons we do talk about (thine) and the hydocarbons we do not talk about (mine).
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Yeah, and why didn’t the industry regulator insist that leading edges and surfaces of whirly turbines be electrically heated, to curtail ice build up and shed it in the first place, like aircraft props do?
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There is light at the end of the tunnel Beth. You see what us AGW skeptics need to do is vote ALP in the 2019 Federal Election – I know it will hurt but there will be in fact light at the end of tunnel. You see by the “Turnbull Libs” getting smashed in 2019 the “current leftie leader” will disappear. The “ALP Shorten Govt” will no doubt put a “wrecking ball” through the Oz Economy – a dead certainty. Oz with its very “high electricity prices”, thanks to the “50% by 2030 RET Policy”, will result in Oz becoming the “basket case economy in the Asian region”. The A$ will probably tank and test 0.60 against the greenback. By the time the 2022 Federal Election comes around the Libs would have seen the light and installed a right wing “Trump-like” leader. With the 2022 Oz Economy in tatters the electorate will have no choice but to install a “saviour” – the “re-generated right wing Liberal Party”. Quite simple really – “NO PAIN NO GAIN”..
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The Conserves needs a Ghough Whitlam anti-thesis. “It’s time.”
A Trump guy won’t work welll or for long in a Parliamentry system, look what his ‘colleages’ did to Abbott as soon as the poles threatened their swamp.
So probably need to give the house of Windsor the @®se, first, and elect Andrew Bolt as the first fixed term Aust prez. That might do a bit better at taking outvthe trash before his ‘colleages’ can knife him.
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George a people’s uprising has already begun, a pox on both your houses, I prefer a massive informal vote and a hung parliament.
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How is it that the government thinks that lawyers (including the Minister) know how electric power systems work and how to run them at least cost as possible?
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It’s the MBA that opens the door.
Bloke I know from around upper management refers to them as
“More Bullshit Again”
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And remember the “selling point” for MBA’s is that
“You only need to know how to manage. You don’t need to know anything about what you are managing”
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goes hand in glove with:
“The issue is not so much the technology; technology is happening,” she said. “It’s the regulatory regimes and the market regimes that need to be adapted to the future power system.”
She immediately leans towards her comfort zone of regulation, policy, markets. Much easier to foucus on that and assume/believe all that engineery stuff just works.
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Even better. She’s got an MBA. With a law degree and an MBA, she could be qualified to do your books abiding by US law. I don’t see the relevance to power distribution in Australia.
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So, not happy with the current solar rebate that is being dished out already? She wants to further penalise the poor buggers who are renting, can’t afford, or don’t want to put rooftop solar on houses.
I am sick of hearing from ‘educated idiots’.
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From an engineering perspective, more solar equals at this stage without a complete grid redesign, an unstable grid.
Again, educated people cant stuff up something as complex as the grid unless they either ignore all the engineers they have on staff providing advice, or, some odd idealogy is driving all this…
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We looked at getting solar power, but our rooftop is in shade from midday on and we would get very little electricity generated. Not worth it. We weren’t joining the dark side, but we get too many scheduled power outages. The local supplier seems to require an 8 hour outage to a whole suburb to change a fuse (only a slight exaggeration). Looks like we’ll be penalised in some future world.
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Cheer up…a diesel genny and look at making your own biodeseil from used coffee grounds from cafes….all good.
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OS
Might be easier on your injectors to use the coffee grounds as abrasive in your handmade hand cleaner
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You can put the panels on a free standing structure if you have yard area with a better aspect. You will need to go the whole hog with batteries if you want to withstand blackouts. As OS says a genset would be more pragmatic.
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Zibelman’s all over the place.
She’s gung ho for rooftop solar , but AEMO has admitted that the extremely fast take-up of rooftop solar is something the operator can’t control …doesn’t know how to control …and if they can’t they’ll lose control of the grid.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/rooftop-solar-australias-greatest-opportunity-greatest-risk-86420/
AEMO’s Riesz says that ‘ one of the major concerns around unfettered quantities of rooftop photovoltaics on the network is the excess energy that can’t be controlled.’
“At the moment there is no framework for moderating the feed into the grid from rooftop PV systems,” she said. “We can turn down the large-scale wind and PV if we have to, but there is no way at the moment to control rooftop PV systems.’
‘….a failure to act could see AEMO lose its grip on grid control, starting within just five years.’
‘Another major concern for AEMO is the response of the rooftop solar resource to network disturbances.’
“Furthermore we don’t actually really even understand certain components of how these systems will respond, and neither do the manufacturers.’
AEMO reports say,’ International experience suggests that it is currently not possible to operate a large power system without some synchronous inertia, and that “synthetic” inertia from non-synchronous generators does not provide a direct replacement’….and yet Zibelman sees no place for coal.
It seems that under the NEG wind and solar are still favored in the merit order for dispatch…ensuring that when they fail to deliver and gas peakers have to kick in….spot prices will soar as will electricity bills.
Zibelman admonishes elected MPS that , ‘we could all agree in Australia, that when we say it’s changing – it is changing,” …..but she gives no confidence that the ‘changing’ is under control, as she admits she’s afraid of ‘of ‘uneconomic bypass’ ….. major energy users going off-grid…..a prelude to grid collapse.
Zibelman sees South Australia…..where AEMO constantly has to intervene…as the template for the NEM…so we’re in trouble.
She appears to be winging it with our bedrock essential service.
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Have a look at the images on these pages to see where its all heading – does this look familiar?
https://www.technocracy.news/flashback-technocracy-smart-grid-green-economy/
“According to the United Nations Governing Council of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), “our dominant economic model may thus be termed a ‘brown economy’.” UNEP’s clearly stated goal is to overturn the “brown economy” and replace it with a “green economy”:
“A green economy implies the decoupling of resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth… These investments, both public and private, provide the mechanism for the reconfiguration of businesses, infrastructure and institutions, and for the adoption of sustainable consumption and production processes.” [p. 2]”
Also – belt and road: Chinas attempt to control the global power grid:
https://www.technocracy.news/china-promotes-global-smart-grid-intercontinental-energy-distribution/
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Original Steve…
Zibelman’s husband Phil Harris is employed as a consultant to the Chinese Communist Government/dictatorship ….advising on the Northern China grid.
The Chinese government already owns much of the East Australian grid-including the biggest wind farm in Australia….Stockyard Hill…sold to Goldwind —a Chinese government-linked company…by ORIGIN.
It’s not yet built but is nevertheless touted as the poster child for wind’s success by the RE cult .
Much of Australia’s generation…retail…transmission and distribution…as well as much of our gas infrastructure and pipelines… are owned or majority-owned by the Chinese government .
AGL’s parent organisation is listed as State Grid Corporation of China ie the Chinese Communist Government.
IMO Turnbull’s nebulous NEG is meant 2 confuse & obfuscate…to keep us silent and unquestioning until after the next election…when …if the worst befalls Australia with a Turnbull win…he’ll unleash his TRANSITION unfettered by any threat of interference from pesky conservative MPs like the Monash Forum …looking out for Australia’s best interests…and he’ll just have his internationally-orchestrated way with a totally brainwashed population.
No matter who we vote for our preferences will go to Turnbull or Shorten…so this is a case for a change to our voting system IMO.
I think there should be a refusal to vote…or an informal vote…en masse…but if Shorten’s elected…at least we know he’s doing his own party’s policy that his constituents voted for…not that of his opponents.
To me it seems totally bizarre that LNP MPs can just prostrate themselves as this incompetent duplicitous Turnbull creature sells Australia out for a nefarious political device when even its architects…internationally and here in Australia… have admitted to the world that its motives and agenda are nothing to do with climate and environment….but everything to do with wealth redistribution…from democracies to Socialist dictatorships and their captive states…and ultimately global governance.
With all the talk of the TRANSITION of Australia FROM reliable…secure..affordable COAL-FIRED electricity that intrinsically provides all of the services…inertia…frequency response…system strength that renewables don’t …without hugely expensive props…TO intermittent windmills and solar…why on earth are even most of the conservative MSM journalists and pundits NOT ASKING questions and REQUIRING ANSWERS on our behalf and on behalf of desperate Australian manufacturers?
They don’t even ask Turnbull et al exactly when Turnbull was given a mandate by the Australian people …to do GreenLabor policy instead of LNP’s .
They don’t even point out to him that he’s only in government due to his victim Tony Abbott’s huge 2013 win …and his rescue by the NATS in 2016….that he has no mandate for anything much….let alone TRANSITIONING Australia from 1st world wealth to 3rd world energy insecurity and poverty.
Australian journalists and pundits …most of them …are complicit in and will be jointly culpable for …Australia’s decline…..IMO.
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I see where Dr.Jenny Riesz did a PhD at University of Qld in biophysics studying quantum and spectroscopic properties of melanin skin pigment. Just the sort of qualifications that would give you NO understanding of high voltage 3 phase AC power grids, their generation and transmission technicalities, voltage control ( Reactive Power) phase angle shift, frequency drop, power harmonics and a host of other issues power engineers must deal with everyday.
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One could make a reasonable argument to reduce inter-connectedness and disband the NEM. If you want to OD on renewables then crap in your own nest and live with it.
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When was the Federal government put in charge of the entire electrical power for the country? When did the states give up their absolute control? Why did we need another layer of Federal government, Federal carbon taxes, Federal legistlation and an all powerful organization to make sure electricity from Tasmania reaches Cairns and Perth? At what point did we lose control of our country and hand it to science ignorant politicians and lawyers who care about money and power only?
What happened to our right to use our own coal as and when and where we see fit? When was covering the country in thousands of windmills considered ecologically sensible let alone practical? Who agreed to this mess.
Get rid of the Turnbulls and their Green friends. One seat in Parliament, a one seat majority for Turncoat and they run the place spending billions of our money on their air brained schemes.
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The short answer is so it can have absolute control so it can be crashed as and when required.
Yes, govt is often inept, but dont confuse muddle headedness with outhouse rat cunning, and, in some cases, just plain evil.
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I would be far happier if it was just inept, shortsighted and ignorant, but these people mean us harm. They are destroying in a few years what took fifty years to build, as in South Australia. The businesses we are trashing took as long to build and they will not be coming back. Manufacturing, transformers, car manufacture, refining, smelting, electronics. We will sell what others can dig in our backyward for whatever they are prepared to pay us. Without secondary manufacturing, we just dig it out of the ground and our masters do not even want that. No dams, no electricity, no manufacturing, no value added, no refining, no sheep exports, no coal exports we control, no gas we control and we are expected to serve coffee? Meanwhile our politicians party with the UN and the EU and do what benefits them.
We used to have politicians who had a vision for Australia which was more than an open cut mine or holiday resort. Even our PM happily agrees that he keeps his hundreds of millions in the Caribbean and we accept that as sensible. Bring back Tony Abbott. He cared what happened to his country. These overpaid US imports are here to get what they can and scoot home, perhaps buying a nice holiday shack at Port Douglas as well.
190
TdeF….
To your list of NO…I would add…no safety nets like PBS-Medic-NDIS-welfare-pensions…that cost many billions we just won’t have without export income…no jobs…also no military…no border security…no national security from terrorism…no billions for the REEF or any other environmental conservation policies…no new technologies…no funds for research [medical or quantum computers or agricultural so we can at least feed ourselves].
There isn’t one other country in the world with a ‘leader’ who’s deliberately doing its citizens existential harm.
Turnbull is forcing Australia out on a very dangerous limb with no nuclear or huge hydro safety net…no neighbouring countries to run a lead to…as Zibelman told anxious and fearful New York Staters THEY could always do…none of the alternative options that are available to EVERY other industrialized 1st world country that’s exiting fossil fuels.
WE ARE completely ALONE.
When countries decline the fall can be sharp and rapid [ the Seneca Cliff]…and it’s almost always about energy.
10
Good question. The AEMO started on July 1 2009, taking over and combining state agencies.
https://www.aemo.com.au/About-AEMO/AEMO-history
70
Their first newsletter…
https://www.aemo.com.au/media/Files/Other/corporate/0000-0218%20pdf.pdf
AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) will incorporate all functions currently carried
out by its six founding organisations –NEMMCO, VENCorp, ESIPC, REMCO, GMC and GRMO – and, in addition, will take on the new responsibility of electricity transmission
planning.
80
Looks like empire building…
40
When ever separate government entities that worked well are consolidated into one entity it’s inevitable that the new entity acquires a built in conflict of interest. And nothing paralyses the new entity faster than not having a clear path forward in pursuit of just one responsibility instead of having to decide among conflicting responsibilities.
If you don’t believe me take a good look at CalTrans, the California Department of Transportation. And if that’s not enough take a close look at our unified school districts as they try to decide how to handle schools from kindergarten at one end of the spectrum through high school at the other.
The old Division of Highways had only one job, keep the state’s highways going and we had a highway system second to none. CalTrans is responsible for all modes of transportation in the state and we haven’t recovered yet.
Separate grade and high school districts were a messy problem and that was used as the argument for unification. Unfortunately it just unified the mess.
I suspect those like Jo, who can think, see a similar future for your new lawyer-in-charge. And it would be that way even if she was on the conservative side of the scale.
It never ends. They are not content with markets sorting things out and making them work as well as they ever will be able to work. Instead they must unify the mess so they can “fix it”.
I’ll bet you never knew that “fix” could be an F-word.
40
I have come to the conclusion that if intelligent educated people are involved in things like the CAGW cult – by deliberate choice. It is impossible to be of knowledge, and learned, and not know whats what in this case.
Alea Iacta Est.
30
The more we learn about Turnbull the more it turns out he must hate Australia so much he wants to cripple it by destroying our only source of base load power. This is the only nation doing it. All others of significance rely heavily on either nuclear or coal, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I’ve had enough of his hypocrisy. I just hope voters will wake up enough and support ACP and allow them to hold the balance of power. Otherwise, this country is doomed for sure under the free reign of either Turnbull or Shorten. Given the split over the two major parties it’s clear though that most Australians are still asleep and need to be kicked really hard where it hurts to wake them up. Better it be done under Shorten and see the humiliating defeat of Turnbull than to see Turnbull win another term. Perhaps a new LNP leader after their loss will turn things around and get back in government to fix the damage done by ALP governments and the current LNP one. I doubt though enough voters are that clever and forward thinking.
170
Australia appears to be the globalists crash test dummy of choice. They usually try things on a small scale first, prove them, then roll it out globally. If you think of Oz as an UN/occult ground zero with our obedient bobble headed Hillary loving stooge politicians, you get the sense of globally what a systemic train wreck we may be heading for. Now add in a few big wars and with our new inability to power our grid and consequential vulnerability to running our actual armed forces, you appreciate how badly we have been sold out and bent over a barrel with our strides around our ankles by our politicians. Sorry to be so stark, but ut us what it is….
140
That’s a good possibility but I rarely follow conspiracy theories unless there is ample hard evidence. Even so it till doesn’t excuse the voters for doing the dumb thing and voting for one of the two major parties. The only reason Trump won was because he was different from both past Republican and Democrat Presidents. If Trump was not running for Presidency I doubt very much the Republicans would have won. We don’t have the equivalent of a Trump here but we do have one party with not too dissimilar ideals. The ACP is the obvious choice under the current circumstances, at least as the third party of influence instead of ON and the Greens. If the voters won’t see that then this country will have to go through the crash and burn scenario to wake up.
90
I agree with you Peter.
Voting for either of the 2 majors and expecting, (hoping), for a better outcome is not going to achieve anything.
Change is definitely needed, so as far as I am concerned the Libs and Labor are both no-go zones.
I would hate to see a Shortone government, but the Turdball alternative isn’t much better. Better to throw them both out with the bathwater and start a new mix. Surely whatever happens can’t be worse, can it?
60
Actually one could put a semi good argument that Shorten would be better for us in the very short term but the end result will still be a crash and burn scenario. So yes if we continue to vote for either major party we might as well give up the fight and wait for the crash and burn scenario to play out then see what happens after that. It would be like being in a plane that’s run out of fuel and it’s now crash diving. We can only hope that the pilot can perform a controlled crash and then there will be some survivors. I’m not sure which would make the better “pilot”, Shorten or Turnbull. Both are dead weights so in reality it would make no difference.
40
At least if Blinky Bill gets in we will see if that which most here think is inevitable, is indeed inevitable. The ultimate crash test.
00
That’s the other point I was trying to make. Let him be the next PM and take all the blame for the coming crash and burn. Perhaps then the people will learn the hard lesson that socialism of any kind is very destructive.
00
I think you should change your motto at the top of the page Jo !
A perfectly good electricity grid being ruined .
40
Yes and people have forgotten the white-anting of the grid was strongly supported by Turnbull a long time ago when Rudd was PM.
110
Not changing that motto 🙂
What’s the best way to wreck a civ? Start with energy….
20
Amazing Audrey
Not quite the good lawyer!
But a typical lawyer!
How does she become CEO of AEMO? Sort of like jobs for the boys who have been naughty at Gold & Sacks?
Links there?
150
See 2.0 above.
Turnbull has his allegiance and his money invested elsewhere.
50
#5.1 and #5.1.1 help?
10
Audrey Zibelman’s husband is as interesting as Theresa May’s husband. Or Kevin Rudd’s wife.
So many interesting spouses!
90
And so many interesting conflicts of interest.
50
Really, Sam?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz8RjPAD2Jk
20
How can anyone “deliver a system of “distributed energy” that delivers better supply security by storing solar and wind power in batteries for later use” n Qld now that we cant clear vegetation?
Or does that apply only to farmers?
Queensland passes land-clearing laws after gruelling three-day debate
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/04/queensland-passes-land-clearing-laws-after-gruelling-three-day-debate
70
Developers will be right.
“ALP – From Tree of Knowledge to Forest of Ignorance”
70
Yet another case of the Greens wanting to destroy farmers and in the end the nation. Mulga had been used as fodder for cattle during drought for the past 150 years. I suggest the farmers sue the state government for compensation.
70
Compensation doesn’t get a mention in the state constitution.
Kyoto was a lot cheaper if the state did it
10
In fact “compensation” is a much worse word to government circles than the usual “c” word
00
The question might be better …
How can anyone build a solar/wind farm in Qld with new land clearance laws?
70
Mark if they want to knock down trees for solar,wind or power lines even to build dams for pumped hydro I’m sure the greens will be ok with it .
30
If batteries are now essential for a Green system from wind and solar, why wasn’t that true in the beginning. Or is this about bandaids after the patient has bled to death?
60
Or is this the classic ripoff. A new system which was sold as better, Greener and cheaper but BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED.
120
“A new system which was sold as better, Greener and cheaper but BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED”
That is an outstanding description! I may have to steal that for future discussions with Climate Worriers.
80
“Ephemeral energy. (Batteries not included)”
From comments lately at Jo’s
40
It was true and it is band-aids, as amply demonstrated in South Australia. They just spent most of the money of gas/diesel generation, which was probably driven by Weatherills need for an absolutely bullet proof plan going into a summer election.
00
It is sometimes hard to tell if it is Australia running the show or the US. The pollies seem to be enamored with US CEOs regardless of their past performances. We hired US West telco CEO Sol Trujillo for some $43m tax free who oversaw Telstra share prices fall 30% before heading home to ‘spend more time with his family’.
100
It’s called a game of thrones. Many CEOs are just clever at playing con games while becoming very wealthy fast enough to escape and move on. In a fair world when a CEO runs down a company and performance deteriorates as a result they should give back all their bonuses and say 95% of the salary. Of course we all know the world is not fair.
60
Exactly. High farce with even Hillary down here in friendly Australia. I suppose we paid her airfare too. Mugs down under. Friend of Julia who sent the Clintons many millions of our cash.
60
Hillary’s Clinton Foundation needs to be seen as yet another “Insurance Policy”. (The Clintons are very good at getting these into place).
It works like this:
Socialist and other left-wing corrupt politicians from various countries make a tax-payer funded “deposit” while in power to the Clinton Foundation and then, when they a chucked out, draw-down “their” contribution. This draw-down takes place in a number of ways including: airfares and expenses, fat speaker fees, book deals, consultancy fees and the like.
It’s a criminal operation with tentacles in every taxpayer’s pocket.
80
Does any one know if Cory Bernardi has an opinion of the legality of the large payments from both Labor and the Libs to this slush fund ? It would be interesting to know and would help his cause .
10
“I believe we’re the last generation on earth who can really do something about climate change.“
Lady, there has never been any generation which could do that. You’re dreamin’
160
It’s ironic that the uses the phrase “the last generation”. Tyring to implement her vision of solar and wind will result in the “the last generation” of electricity from the grid, just before the lights go out permanently…
20
Or people die as a result…that could make an intersting class action possibly directly against AMEO leadership? Lets not rule it out.
00
I suppose that’s what you get from a crooked Hillary reject ,no wonder she moved from America with Trump draining the swamp .
80
The Chinese are not listening to her. They are building hundreds and hundreds of coal fired power stations all over the world. So she is wasting her time over here. If she really believes that she has to move over to China and try to change them. Good luck! Otherwise she is either less intelligent than a rodent or she is a con artist, or both.
60
It’s all Mark Twain’s fault. Why did he have to go and say “everyone talks about the weather but no-one does anything about it”?
80
Lunatics running the asylum only becoames an issue for society when they move beyond the asylum …
10
Turns out emitting a trace gas (CO2 ) to 410ppm is a truly lousy way of boiling oceans and turning oceans acidic, causing the death of humpback whales …
Whale-watching season gets off to early start as humpback whale population soars
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-13/whale-watching-season-starts-early-humpback-population-grows/9752644
80
‘…beginning their migration north almost a month early.’
In nature there is a reason for everything and I suspect its just another sign of regional cooling.
00
Turnbull appointed Audrey Zibelman what do you . . .
Zibelman,an American lawyer no less and well connected in the international business world it would appear.
How else did she get the job?
The whole thing stinks if you ask me.
And Turnbull, he has to go.
GeoffW
200
Expensive microgrid…it seems Zibelman has a heavy connection to the technology of renewables.
The link below us a must read…..
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2015/06/top-energy-regulator-tied-to-bidders-for-state-work-023067
“On an Anbaric website, the company boasts that it collaborates with Viridity on microgrids. Viridity “makes controls for microgrids,” according to Anbaric.
A 15-megawatt microgrid recently completed on Riker’s Island cost $122 million. The winners of a $40 million state microgrid competition now underway will “inform the REV process” by demonstrating the benefit of microgrids, according to a state press release. The state has already begun providing money for feasibility studies on where to site the microgrids.”
Is there a conflict of interest here?
60
Paying ordinary customers not to use power, a new free enterprise model.
‘Zibelman says the consumer-led revolution where households are paid to reduce their power usage during hot days was the future of the NEM, rather than spending billions of dollars building more capacity into the grid.
“If we can look at how network companies can use customer-based resources to drive efficiency we can reduce the operational expenses and risk to the network and avoid those extreme peaks,” she says.
Fin Review
70
They use our money to create a shortage which was never there and then use more of our money to pay people to not work. Socialists all. Thieves.
110
And meanwhile it’s all borrowed money.
We are in a huge debt cavern thanks to the borrowing of successive governments.
GeoffW
20
The US has The Deep State.
Australia has The Termite State.
110
Yep. And American termites are having a feed.
Is she into Polesocks™?
10
Funny…I saw “termite” and read “thermite”…..
00
Turnbull picked her? Really. Two possible scenarios:
1. Turnbull had people hunt around for the most qualified AGW supporter to run AEMO. First selection criteria: AGW supporter. Second, should understand basic electrickery.
Ok, maybe, possible. Doubtful, though.
2. Turnbull receives a phone from “them”, and is told to appoint her.
Hmmm, let me think. Yep, I’m going with option 2.
If you’re asking who “them” are, you’re a little late to the party.
40
Turnbull appointed Audrey Zibelman in 2017 to replace Matt Zema, who had tragically died in office. Matt Zema was the opposite of Audrey Zibelman politically, operationally and every other way. Tunbull deliberately picked this left looney from a global field. He knew exactly what she was about – Clinton connection and all. Why?
150
Treason would be my bet.
50
‘Why?’
As I mentioned at the top of thread, Zibelman was chosen because its politically correct and she is the fall guy when it all goes belly up.
Supposing the PM had chosen someone who thinks CO2 doesn’t cause global warming, the media would have a field day, so Turnbull is taking the course of least resistance.
Intuitively I see the ginger group now working behind the scenes to make coal king again, and if Turnbull fails to get the message by Xmas he will be history.
For a coup to be successful the plotters need to understand the science so that the Coalition can argue their case at the next election, which would be the opposite of Labor.
A refreshed and healthy democracy, Beijing would be impressed.
20
And I guess she can always head back to the US once it all goes belly up….nice and clean, huh ?
30
Its a lucrative job and if worse comes to worse she could plead ignorance, blaming the scientists.
10
Why?
Simple reason – the powers that be at Goldman Sachs told him to, after all he is a good company man and will be well rewarded when he goes back.
30
jo –
can’t find her AEMO compensation package, but presume it would far exceed her salary as Chair of the New York Public Service Commission as at Jan 2017 – ***$127,000 (Australian $168,351.21).
23 Jan 2017: RTO Insider: NYPSC Chair to Head Australia Grid Operator
By William Opalka
Audrey Zibelman, chair of the New York Public Service Commission since 2013, is headed to Australia to lead the operator of that country’s largest gas and electricity markets…
Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, was dismayed by the news.
“PSC Chair Audrey Zibelman and New York’s energy team have made our state a national and global model for the 21st century energy grid. Her leadership in reforming utility regulation, the promotion of distributed generation and public participation testify to her lasting contribution. Her departure will be a real loss for New York state,” Reynolds said. “But Gov. Cuomo has a very strong energy team and vision, and we assume the administration’s sharp focus on modernizing and decarbonizing the grid will continue with Audrey’s replacement.”
Her departure leaves the PSC even more short-handed than it already is…
Former Chair Garry Brown left the commission in February 2015 and was not replaced. Last month, longtime commissioner and former chair Patricia Acampora said she would retire after the Feb. 16 commission meeting.
Rocco LaDuca, spokesman for Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee Chair Joseph Griffo, said the senator is aware of the pending vacancies…
Commissioners are appointed to six-year terms and are paid $109,800 annually. ***The chair has a $127,000 salary.
https://www.rtoinsider.com/nypsc-audrey-zibelman-australia-37054/
after all, Australia pays big:
9 Dec 2016: Guardian: ‘She doesn’t get what we do’: has ABC boss Michelle Guthrie got the insiders on her side?
Despite an encouraging start, the former Murdoch and Google executive has drawn fire from staff angry at cuts, an allegedly detached leadership style and apparent lack of understanding of some of Aunty’s key values
by Amanda Meade
Staff who have dealt with the new managing director, who is now six months into her ***$900,000-a-year job, say it is obvious she doesn’t come from a journalism background…
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/09/she-doesnt-get-what-we-do-has-abc-boss-michelle-guthrie-got-the-insiders-on-her-side
20
“AEMO is a public private partnership…”
No wonder the energy revolution is “consumer-led”, what with corporation and governments deciding. Those big boys (and girls!) don’t stand a chance against all us “folks” as we queue up and eagerly demand to pay more for less. As “folks” do.
It’s like those colour revolutions where an NGO with “democracy” somewhere in its name and headed by a laid back guy in a Hawaiian shirt gives you a new government overnight and even provides you with little flags to wave in the main square. What would a crafty Zibelman call that now? Oh yeah, a public private partnership.
40
a brief look at a few of the Leadership Team:
AEMO: Our Executive Leadership Team
Joe Locandro, Technology
Joe Locandro is the Chief Digital and Technology Officer (CTDO) for AEMO’s Technology Department. With over 20 years of experience in executive IT management, Joe has previously held various CIO and executive roles at Emirates Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airlines, China Light & Power, AusPower, Yallourn Energy and Village Roadshow prior to joining AEMO…
Katherine Henry, People and Transformation
Katherine Henry is the Executive General Manager (EGM) of People and Transformation. Katherine has a diverse background, and has lead transformational change across the technology, legal, financial services, professional services, and fast moving consumer goods sectors within several geographies including Australia, New Zealand, Asia, North America and the UK. Katherine has deep consulting experience underpinned by organisational psychology and HR executive experience. She has worked for well-known organisations throughout her career such as PwC, IBM, ANZ Bank, and UXC Limited…
Jo Witters, Strategy and Innovation
Jo is the Executive General Manager (EGM) of AEMO’s Strategy and Innovation teams. Jo has over 18 years’ experience working in the international and Australian energy sector, with roles covering strategy, market development, corporate and regulatory matters. Prior to her current role, Jo was Executive General Manager of AEMO’s People and Culture department, and has lead development of Corporate Strategy within the CEO Office.
https://www.aemo.com.au/About-AEMO/Executive-Leadership-Team
Witters was with OFGEM in UK from 2002 to 2009.
LinkedIn: Jo Witters
https://au.linkedin.com/in/jo-witters-4b4b1068
10
I’m against the Koreans opening a coal mine in the Hunter Valley.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-14/bylong-mine-in-upper-hunter-to-proceed-despite-threat-to-water/9748574
20
I’m not. The Chinese want to fire up a mothballed plant in the hunter to provide power to do just bitcoin mining. If our toxic pollies wont run the infrastructure, why not get people with a bit of get up and go to do it?
20
The mothballed plant should be reopened, its good value, but I’m dead against overseas conglomerates digging an open cut mine on good agricultural land.
20
Sometimes its good to have the lunatics noses rubbed in it….
00
The Bylong is a special place. It’s beautiful and it’s prime agricultural. I’m not going to let my love of coal blind me to the value of the Bylong Valley as heritage and as long-term food supply.
The whole point of being a rich and self-determining nation powered by such magnificent coal resources is that we should be able to defy not only the ruinous and corrupt green lobbies but also the neo-liberal money lobbies.
Environmentalism is a mass neurosis but conservation is a real value which we are quickly forgetting. There may be a case for mining the Bylong and and I certainly wouldn’t reject the idea on the basis of an (eyeroll) ABC article. On the other hand, I want to hear the case against, particularly in these times of oligarchs and plunderers (and that’s just the greenie Prime Ministers and Premiers and their greenie ministers, not the really dodgy guys.). I wouldn’t sacrifice the ridges of the Bylong Valley to Big Green for wind turbines so it’s only fair that I should hang skeptical on these mining proposals.
If we stopped frittering money and resources for the War on Coal we might be able to leave some coal in the ground where it suits. When you get desperate for a crust you’ll sell your mother’s rosary beads. So let’s build and power up those flash new coal power plants and get rich so we can pay for some real conservation. Put money in thy purse.
30
OT I know, but at 0700 hrs 14th of May, South Australia is definitely cooking with gas, because wind isn’t doing a damned thing. Wind is producing 13MW of a demand of 1521MW. Must require a sense of adventure to live in cuckoo land.
70
Oh noes! 8:52 AM and wind production plummets 50% to 7MW. Thank god for the big battery!
50
The new word in a wind driven world is “CURTAILMENT”. This word had to be invented because wind generator proponents did not think it through. They had always thought the grid was an endless bucket that could take all their energy or supply the load when they could not. Sadly the system is in a delicate balance that is easily upset if supply exceeds demand or demand exceeds supply.
CURTAILMANT means the run-whenever-you-like generators can no longer run-whenever-you-like. At times there could be too many of them doing more than the system can handle.
It will be interesting watching the light bulb moments as wind generators realise their LCOE calculations were literally not worth the paper they were written on as their capacity factors collapse.
The linked chart is a great one to keep in mind if you get into a debate on the cost of intermittency as it knocks out base load and makes base load generators uneconomic:
https://www.energycouncil.com.au/media/7685/2017-04-06-wholesale-prices-figure-3.jpg
Also this one:
https://www.energycouncil.com.au/media/7684/2017-04-06-wholesale-prices-figure-1-vwp.jpg
20
Next step from AEMO will be demand control. With smart meters we will be told our peak evening usage will be rationed. We will be “instructed” to have our main meal in the middle of the day when the sun is shining, and to restrict heating/air conditioning to two rooms maximum. And what is left of manufacturing industry will be rationed on operating hours.
1984 – here we come.
60
If you look at the documentation provided at the time of Gillard’s smart meter roll-out (I still have it), one of the key reasons given for their introduction was “peak load management”. Or put another way, load shedding. Or another way – power rationing.
In the UK, from where we copied the smart meter craze, the clear intention was to use them for household power rationing. So far, it hasnt been used.
Not only 1984, but Soviet Russia as well. And they did it because of poverty. We are doing it by design.
10
I have no idea why but the Clinton Foundation has been popular with Australian politicians,
It is well known that Julia donated millions to it but so did liberal governments and there is a link with Downer [who had that boozy conversation with Papadopolis] because he immediately ran to Clinton with the story. I wonder what was in it for them?
30
Hanrahan –
or NZ pollies:
7 May: ScoopNZ: Clinton Foundation gets another $5.5m from NZ taxpayers
Press Release: New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union
A subsidiary of the controversial Clinton Foundation is set to receive US$3.9m (NZ$5.5m) in taxpayer money in 2018/19, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can confirm. This is in addition to NZ$8m given to the organisation since 2014.
Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) claims that the organisation in question, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, is a separate entity. This is absurd – the Clinton Foundation appoints the organisation’s directors, making it a subsidiary in legal terms.”
“The Foundation is currently under investigation by the FBI over the way it obtained donations while Hillary Clinton was US Secretary of State – the same period in which the New Zealand Government began giving the initiative money.”
“Taxpayers deserve confidence that aid commitments are made to help the world’s poor, not to win favours with foreign politicians.”
“Even if aid money was meant to be used for diplomatic purposes, the funding’s justification for no longer holds with Secretary Clinton out of public office. It seems that all taxpayers have to show for our generosity is a stop on her book tour!”
“The new Government should follow Australia’s lead and cut ties with Hillary Clinton’s potentially corrupt organisations. She is perfectly capable of raising money without handouts from the little New Zealand taxpayer.” …
The documents confirming the funding, released to the Taxpayers’ Union under the Official Information Act, are available at (LINK)
Last year, the Taxpayers’ Union launched a petition to end taxpayer funding for the Clinton Foundation. The petition has attracted nearly three and half thousand signatures (over 5,000 now) and can be signed at (LINK).
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1805/S00076/clinton-foundation-gets-another-55m-from-nz-taxpayers.htm
40
Without even reading what that links to I’ll say, “Dear God, please make that come true. Then future generations will no longer have to worry about climate change.”
10
These days everything is run by lawyers. I’m surprised we don’t all need personal lawyers to oversee everything we do and tell us which of each day’s decisions are legal so we can go ahead one more day… …it can go on like that forever. The great Independent Council Mueller has indicted on the basis of laws so old no one even remembered they existed.
If there’s ever another American revolution I would not want to be a lawyer for anything. 🙁
30
I’m thankful Trump is not a lawyer.
40
Trump is neither a lawyer or a politician.
That’s why he’s so great.
30
Amen to that. 🙂
10
Roy,
I think it was Charles Dickens who said ‘ A lawyers business is to make business for lawyers’
A very perceptive man.
40
Roy,
I think it was Charles Dickens who said ‘ A lawyers business is to make business for lawyers’
A very perceptive man.
10
Expensive electricity due to a belief in the cult of Climate Change™ is one of the two primary weapons being used by the Left to destroy Western Civilisation. The other is the targeted importation into civilised countries of some of the world’s most uneducated, unemployable, unassimiliable and violent people.
41
Expensive electricity due to a belief in the cult of Climate Change™ is one of the two primary weapons being used by the Left to destroy Western Civilisation. The other weapon is the targeted importation into civilised countries of some of the world’s most uneducated, unemployable, unassimiliable and violent people.
31
Apologies for the double posting. The post disappeared the first time I submitted it even after I refreshed the page so I retyped it and then the first version appeared…
21
Agree. However, we live in a democracy where voters can put a stop to this self-destructive and suicidal path both major parties have taken. If not enough voters exercise that right they get what they deserve. It’s that simple. Ignorance is no excuse and in fact is a liability. The ACP is the only real alternative that can have a strong influence on whoever wins government next time. If the ACP does not get enough support so they can at least hold the balance of power in at least one of the two houses of parliament then we might as well go fishing until the dust settles from the crash and burn. Unless Turnbull is replaced by someone with the correct mindset, I now think we would be better off with Shorten over the very short term. At lest we can have a good time before it all goes pear shaped, which it would under either leadership. At least the LNP can blame it on the ALP (as before) and return with a new leader after the dust settles to get things back in order again like it was under the Howard years. I just cannon stand another term with those clowns in the ministry lead by the master clown Turnbull.
11
I agree PeterS that if Shorten got in it would provide the shake up the Liberals (what’s left of them) needs however the country is already in dire economic straits. The additional economic damage that would be wrought by Shorten would be so severe there might not be any recovery possible after that.
31
If people were going to play that strategic card — aiming to rescue conservative politics for the long run — they’d need a smart targeted campaign — starting pretty much now. Say a list of ACP seats with candidates and also a list of the seats where the ALP candidate was better than the fake-Lib. Obviously there are good LNP people and there’s team-Turnbull. No need to oust the good LNP people.
Better — and far more like the game the left plays — is to get rid of the problem in between elections and not risk giving power to the spend-burn-and-practice-most-witchcraft team who do empire building when they have control of funds.
20
OK Jo. We vote for you to be the PM and drain the swamp.
20
Jo, a discussion with a taxi driver turned up there are many frustrated people who would vote for ACP at the drop of a hat, as they recognize the main 3 parties are plain rotten to the core…
20
After the next crash and burn we will recover no matter caused it because crash and burns always flush out the scum.
10
I’m sure some Romans were saying that too….
You may be right this time, but crash and burns sometimes give the scum a pedestal — and excuse to seize “emergency control”. The Great Depression gave the welfare state a big hand.
30
Unfortunately to late. Oz and 187 other countries signed away their sovereignty in 1992 to the UN Agenda 21. Julie Bishop under Tony Abbott’s watch endorsed Agenda 2030 (more radical than Agenda 21) late 2015 (was implemented early 2016). We have waited to long. ACP, One Nation, general Oz citizens have no idea what the big picture/global elite plan towards a NWO is and have left it to late to have an impact. Herewith a PDF to “A summary of betrayal” by Graham Williamson. (PDF version of this report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/a-summary-of-betrayal.pdf)
20
Thanks for posting that Staalbal.
10
When I refer to the crash and burn scenario I’m not referring to the end of a civilisation or empire, such as the Ancient Greeks, Romans, etc. Those are of a much higher order and our Western civilisation will no doubt suffer a similar outcome later. I’m referring to a major turning point such as what we have experienced during the GFC but magnified somewhat. IMHO it will be an opportunity for a NWO; and that’s where I agree with you that an even bigger scum might replace the existing ones. If only people were not asleep and acted accordingly to elect the right sort of people instead of sleep walking into the booths and voting blindly the same old parties over and over, and expecting a different result. I do understand the reluctance to giving an inexperienced new party to power but at least they could give one, say the ACP enough support to hold the balance of power. It would at least put on the breaks and possibly even turn things around before we fall over the cliff. Instead we see the Greens have more hope of holding the balance of power at least up to know, which in any language is complete nuts. It sort of proves though most voters are asleep.
10
Right now a crash and burn would leave only scorched earth. No more world as we knew it.
That’s why I red thumbed #34.2
00
One example please of a modern political party doing some soul-searching and cleaning house? The libs’ near death experience last election did not prompt any.
20
14 May: IT Brief NZ: Mercury acquires stake in Tilt Renewables after poor wind conditions drive FY loss
by Julia Gabel
After posting a A$2.8 million loss for FY18, a 19.99% stake of Tilt Renewables has been sold to Mercury NZ.
Tilt Renewables’ FY18 loss compares to a $16.4 million profit the year before.
The Auckland-based wind and solar company cites below average wind conditions in New Zealand and Australia, in addition to the impact of constraints put in place by the market operator (AEMO) in Australia, as the main drivers of the loss.
In the announcement, the company adds, “The low wind conditions across Australia and New Zealand were largely experienced in the June 2017 quarter, with the impact partially offset by improved Australian production in the last three quarters of FY18.”
The company remains optimistic about the future of the renewable energy market in Australia and New Zealand, stating that renewable energy has cemented its position as the lowest costs option for replacing Australia’s ageing fleet of thermal generation…
“Tilt Renewables is positioned to benefit from the transition with wind, solar, energy storage and other firming options now part of the development pipeline.”…
Mercury NZ has reached an agreement with the Tauranga Electricity Consumer Trust to pick up a 19.99% stake in Tilt Renewables, agreeing to a total purchase price of $143,895,594.60 – or $2.30 per share.
Mercury has also secured an option to acquire the remaining approximately 6.81% of Tilt shares held by TECT at $2.30 per share, payable in cash.
Whineray adds, “The investment will allow Mercury to meaningfully participate in Australia’s accelerating transition to renewable energy sources.”…
https://itbrief.co.nz/story/mercury-acquires-stake-tilt-renewables-after-poor-wind-conditions-drive-fy-loss/
***sentence is incomplete?
14 May: National Business Review: Tilt Renewables names Deion Campbell as CEO
by Jonathan Underhill
***Last month Tilt posted a first-half loss of A$2.6 million, from a profit of A$10.5 million a year earlier, when weak winds and reduced output from the Snowtown wind farms in Australia.
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/tilt-renewables-names-deion-campbell-ceo-b-211188
14 May: Stuff NZ: Mercury pays $143m for stake in wind and solar firm Tilt Renewables
by CATHERINE HARRIS
The purchase price equates to $2.30 per share in cash, well above Tilt’s Friday closing share price of $1.85. Shares in Tilt jumped nearly 11 per cent to $2.05 by late Monday morning…
Tilt, which is 51 per cent owned by investment firm Infratil, is listed on both the NZX and the ASX. It was carved out of Trustpower in 2016 and specialises in wind and solar energy…
Tilt is currently building a 54 megawatt hour wind farm at Salt Creek in Australia. It also owns the Tararua 1, 2 & 3 and Mahinerangi wind farms in New Zealand and Snowtown 1 & 2 in Australia…
Tilt has a development pipeline in Australia of close to 3,000MW of wind, solar, and storage projects as well as 530MW of wind projects in New Zealand.
20
They need to get the jargon correct. This is all about CURTAILMENT. Something the LCOE calculators do not understand.
I also like the way they imply constraint is some arbitrary control by AEMO; not even acknowledging it is an essential requirement to ensure system stability due to the rapid growth in run-whenever-you-like generators. They are beginning to realise they can no longer run-whenever-you-like.
20
This is the first time I have seen an admission that there can be too much wind generation causing system instability and forcing AEMO to curtail production.
AEMO does publish reports on market interventions, but they have a backlog – still processing assessments from last November. In some cases those impacted can claim compensation.
Currently there is 1 MW (yes, just 1 MW) of wind generation in SA, over 600 MW being transmitted to SA from Vic, and latest AEMO intervention:
Market Notice 62832 AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE.
In accordance with section 116 of the National Electricity Law AEMO has issued a direction to a participant in the South Australia region.
The direction was necessary to maintain the power system in a secure operating state.
The direction was issued at 1500 hrs 13/05/2018, with effect from 0030 hrs 14/05/2018.
The direction is expected to stay in place until 1500 hrs 14/05/2018.
Presumably the intervention has been to tell an SA gas generator to keep running, but we won’t know the details for six months. Audrey Zibelman as AEMO CEO obviously needs more support. Meanwhile the big gas generator Pelican Point is delivering zero. But fear not, the big battery is delivering 30 MW for 30 minutes or so every couple of hours.
30
this is being picked up by various websites…has it been analysed here?
11 May: RenewEconomy: The stunning numbers behind success of Tesla big battery
By Sophie Vorrath & Giles Parkinson
The Tesla big battery in South Australia has already taken a 55 per cent share in the state’s frequency and ancillary services market, and lowered prices in that market by 90 per cent, new data has shown.
The stunning numbers on the economics of the country’s first utility-scale battery were presented at the Australian Energy Week conference in Melbourne on Thursday by McKinsey and Co partner Godart van Gendt.
Speaking as part of a panel on the leading technologies and strategies that will help manage the transition to renewables in Australia, van Gendt said the data was more evidence that battery storage would “play a very big role.”…
“In the first four months of operations of the Hornsdale Power Reserve (the official name of the Tesla big battery, owned and operated by Neoen), the frequency ancillary services prices went down by 90 per cent, so that’s 9-0 per cent.
“And the 100MW battery has achieved over 55 per cent of the FCAS revenues in South Australia. So it’s 2 per cent of the capacity in South Australia achieving 55 per cent of the revenues in South Australia…
“So that’s great for the first battery in the market,” he added, “but if you’ve already had 55 per cent of the FCAS that are now gone, right… and a 90 per cent drop in price, then the business case for the second battery, of course, is a bit less attractive.
“So I wish the second battery in South Australia a lot of luck!”
Various estimates have put the cost savings to consumers from the FCAS market alone at around $35 million, just in the first four months of its operation.
That’s a pretty good bang for the buck for the estimated $50 million investment by the South Australia government. South Australia is the only state that has experienced a decline in FCAS prices over the past few months…
The Australian Energy Market Operator has praised its performance, noting how it can respond to faster than any conventional generator, and with more accuracy.
AEMO has also supported the push for new rules that would recognise very fast response, which it is now using as a front-line defence against any further grid-scale blackouts…READ ALL
https://reneweconomy.com.au/the-stunning-numbers-behind-success-of-tesla-big-battery-63917/
22 Mar: Electrek: Tesla to deploy another large Powerpack project in Australia after securing $25 million in funding
by Fred Lambert
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced today that it will match a $25 million investment by the Victorian Government to jointly fund Victoria’s first two large-scale, grid-connected batteries as part of the Victorian energy storage initiative…READ ON
https://electrek.co/2018/03/22/tesla-large-powerpack-australia/
20
12 May: WyomingTribuneEagle: Xcel Energy to sell wind farm at Colorado-Wyoming border
By Chrissy Suttles
CHEYENNE – Corporate owners of a northern Colorado wind farm are looking to sell the property before fully committing to the removal of idle turbines there.
Xcel Energy, which owns the Ponnequin wind farm south of Cheyenne near Carr, Colorado, plans to let the site remain dormant until at least this fall…
HAD TO FIND THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
13 May: 4-traders: Xcel Energy : to sell wind farm at Colorado-Wyoming border
If no one buys the land by then, the company will begin decommissioning work next spring, according to Mark Stutz, Xcel Energy media representative.
While there is no information available yet on how long the process would take, the company is hoping to revitalize the wind farm through new ownership.
“We have had some interest over the years, but nothing that has yet ended in a sale,” Stutz said. “We will continue to look for a buyer.”
Stutz did not disclose the sale’s financial details.
The site is visible from many parts of Cheyenne, with some wondering what’s next.
“It was a couple of years ago they said they were still figuring it out,” said Laramie County resident Sam Cooke, who said he has a clear view of the turbines from his hillside property on the border. “I don’t find it particularly attractive to stare at if it’s not getting any use.”
Xcel Energy owns 37 of the 44 turbines at Ponnequin, which could generate approximately 30 megawatts of electricity, Stutz said. The wind farm is made up of both 650-kilowatt and 750-kilowatt turbines.
The turbines were installed in phases from 1998-2001. The facility was officially shut down on Dec. 31, 2015.
The turbines were projected to have a 15-year lifespan, and the site made it 18 years before the company decided to end operations, citing challenges finding parts and performing maintenance as the turbines aged.
The lifespan of the average wind turbine is 20-25 years.
In Wyoming, decommissioning plans must include removal of the “turbines, towers, substations, buildings, cabling, electrical components, foundations to a depth of (48) inches, and any other associated or ancillary equipment or structures within the facility boundary above and below ground,” according to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
This is often done with the use of dynamite and waste removal, but Xcel has not announced how it plans to clear this site, which is on the Colorado side of the border. Some wind farm owners use more environmentally friendly decommissioning efforts — forming assembly lines to slowly remove each turbine.
Xcel Energy has promised to completely restore the land to its original state.
Because Ponnequin spans government and private land, decommissioning can be challenging, which is why the site has remained dormant for more than two years.
Stutz said Xcel’s timeline is, as always, subject to change.
http://www.4-traders.com/XCEL-ENERGY-39742648/news/Xcel-Energy-to-sell-wind-farm-at-Colorado-Wyoming-border-26574543/
10
lots of info, read all:
13 May: AFR: Mitsubishi backs $800m gas solution for South Australia
by Matthew Stevens
Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation is backing the joint venture that is working to solve South Australia’s future energy needs with a “virtual pipeline” project that would see liquid natural gas imports linked to a new firming capacity power station.
The now $800 million project proposed, which was reported first in The Australian Financial Review in March last year (LINK), has been developed by a group of former BHP managers who work at Melbourne-based management consultancy Integrated Global Partners…
Mitsubishi has invested $15 million to fully finance a feasibility study on a proposal to land imported shipments of liquid natural gas at Pelican Point, 20 kilometres south of Adelaide, where it would be converted, stored and used to fuel a related power station development and be sold into South Australian gas markets…
This is the second “virtual pipeline” proposal that has been backed by major Japanese industrialists and it has become increasing obvious that Japan Inc generally is drawn to the growth opportunities created by the structural disconcert of Australia’s energy market.
In February the Financial Review revealed that former Santos executive James Baulderstone had lured Marubeni and the emperor of LNG traders, JERA, into a joint venture with Andrew Forrest (LINK) that aims to rescue he state from its twin gas and power dilemmas…
AGL has committed $20 million to fund feasibility work on building a gas import facility at Crib Point on Victoria’s Western Port Bay. AGL has targeted 2019 for a final investment with the aim of delivering first gas by 2020-21…
But back to the IG Partners plan. While we do not yet know the name of South Australia’s energy market disrupter, we assure you of its credibility when it comes to the mining business. The board is laden with figures familiar to BHP and to South Australia…
http://www.afr.com/business/mitsubishi-backs-800m-gas-solution-for-south-australia-20180513-h0zzz7
30
subscription reqd, but cached version is available for now for anyone who wants to read it all – details bribes in Benin, etc:
14 May: AFR: Chinese telco ZTE bribed its way to greatness, now focuses on Australia
by Angus Grigg & Nick McKenzie
ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company with a record of systemic corruption, is bidding for major contracts in Australia, including Telstra’s 5G mobile network and a transport contract in Western Australia, even after being criminally sanctioned in the United States…
On Sunday, President Donald Trump surprised some by saying that even though US sanctions had hurt the Chinese phone company, he intended to help ZTE return to business…
Fairfax Media has been told ZTE is one of two companies shortlisted for a $120 million contract to roll out a communications system for Perth’s metropolitan rail system.
The system will control signalling and operations and is designed to ultimately run the city’s driverless train network.
The other short-listed bidder for the contract is Huawei, which was banned on national security grounds by the federal government in 2012 from bidding on contracts for the national broadband network and is facing similar criminal charges to ZTE for breaching sanctions.
The awarding of the WA contract to either ZTE or Huawei – both companies with strong links to the Chinese government – is at odds with efforts by the Turnbull government to roll back Beijing’s potential influence over critical infrastructure assets in Australia…
Telstra has confirmed ZTE is one of five short-listed bidders for Telstra’s 5G mobile phone network, along with Huawei…
The issue of Huawei or ZTE building Australia’s 5G networks was raised by national security agencies in Washington during Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s visit in February.
http://www.afr.com/business/telecommunications/chinese-telco-zte-bribed-its-way-to-greatness-now-focuses-on-australia-20180513-h0zztm
20
Audrey & Al:
25 March 2015: Bloomberg: Global Business and Policy Leaders Set to Discuss the Transformation of the Energy System
Former US Vice President Al Gore to join more than 1,000 industry leaders at Future of Energy Summit 2015
Bloomberg New Energy Finance will welcome more than 1,000 global energy leaders at its upcoming Future of Energy Summit, 13-15 April at the Grand Hyatt in New York. Now in its eighth year, the forum is one of the most respected in the energy industry, gathering together the executives, senior investors and policy-makers who collectively drive the world’s transition to cleaner energy.
This year’s theme, “opportunities in transformation” will be explored in 45 sessions covering key areas for the future of utilities and the energy system worldwide: those areas are power generation, grids, connected homes and vehicles…
There is much to discuss. 2014 saw a rebound in global clean energy investment, up 16% to $310bn after two years of decline. There was also some 95GW of wind and solar generating capacity installed worldwide, easily a record. Major announcements included Google’s $3.2bn acquisition of Nest, a climate change agreement between China and the US, and E.ON’s historic decision to split into two companies, selling off its conventional generation assets to concentrate on its renewable power and consumer-facing activities…
Highlights of the 2015 Summit include:
•Al Gore, Former Vice President, United States
•Michael Bloomberg, United Nations Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change…
***•Chair Audrey Zibelman, Chair, New York State Public Service Commission…ETC
SUMMIT SPONSORS: Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Lockheed Martin, Direct Energy, Fuel Choices Initiative, AIG, Applied Materials, Black & Veatch, Cemex, Cycle Capital Management, Enphase, ET Solar, Novozymes, Nuclear Matters, ProMexico, Shikun & Binui, Steptoe & Johnson, Wartsila, Zayed Future Energy Prize.
https://www.bloomberg.com/company/announcements/global-business-policy-leaders-set-discuss-transformation-energy-system/
20
lots & lots of Cuomo/Zibelman insider stuff – read all – conservative paper:
11 Feb: Post-Journal Jamestown, NY: Governor Cuomo’s Article 10 Process Is Rigged
by Roy Harvey
(Roy Harvey is a Mayville resident and a retired Chicago television producer)
Energy Czar Kaufmann, along with ***Audrey Zibelman as (then) head of the Public Service Commission (PSC) crafted the mis-named ‘Clean Energy Standard’ (CES) as an environmental-financial “imperative” (to use Kauffman’s term). The CES dictates that carbon dioxide emissions are dangerously heating the planet. Call it Cuomo’s First Law. As Basil Seggos, Cuomo’s newly-appointed head of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) told state senator Cathy Young’s recent budget hearing on environmental conservation, “The time for debate about climate change is over.” Young’s committee, Republicans and Democrats, sat mum for Seggos’ lecture. No State-wide elected official is willing to challenge Cuomo’s climate change mythology…
http://www.post-journal.com/opinion/local-commentaries/2018/02/governor-cuomos-article-10-process-is-rigged/
30
1 Apr 2015: Politico: The public energy connector
By DAVID GIAMBUSSO
If hiring your own boss is a measure of influence, Kate Burson has juice in the world of New York State energy policy.
“I tease her that she stalked me, but it’s more like she hunted me and I was not aware that I was the prey,” said Richard Kauffman, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s energy czar.
Burson is Kauffman’s chief of staff. She wooed him from President Obama’s energy cabinet in 2013 through a months-long series of tactical maneuvers that led eventually to the former Goldman Sachs partner sitting in front of Cuomo and explaining his ideas for a state energy policy…
Before there was Kauffman, before Audrey Zibelman became commissioner of the Public Service Commission, before there was a New York Green Bank or a “Reforming Energy Vision” plan to overhaul the state’s power grid, there was Burson, a 35-year-old lawyer from Tennessee who left behind a career as a professional tennis player and for the last three years has been the quiet broker of an energy-policy revolution in New York…
“This is a job I could never really have dreamed of,” Burson said later, sitting in a conference room guarded by a state police officer. “I’m working in the exact area; this intersection of business and policy and law. I’ve gotten to build a team here with tremendous colleagues and work on something we all believe in.”
Burson has been with Cuomo since 2008, when she worked in the then-attorney general’s office.
She is a true believer in Cuomo. And the belief seems to be mutual: When the governor made a priority of reforming state energy policy, he tapped Burson to make it happen…
***Her father, Charles Burson, is a former Tennessee attorney general who went on to serve as then vice president Al Gore’s chief of staff and legal counsel…
Through state agencies like the Department of Public Service, NYSERDA and the Green Bank, New York is trying to become a center for renewable energy innovation and profit. At the heart of those efforts is a nine-person team run by Burson and Kauffman, guiding and executing policies that share a common vision…
Burson, and the Cuomo administration, stress that they hope to reach their goals by market-based means, rather than mandates.
“You have to tie things to the bottom line and you have to work through markets in order to change,” Burson said. “If we want clean energy we need to change the price signals. We need to change the regulations.”…
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2015/04/the-public-energy-connector-000000
10
Wow..and the “Climate change Commission” from memory costs us about $52 million per year..
The gravy train of magic money just keeps rolling on.
ps…we need someone to tap the Liberal party and tell them the secret..that their own pollsters MUST know..but have not told them..here is the “secret”..
But well done on achieving those two “targets”..that takes a special group of geniuses..
50
fascinating PBS documentary from April 2000. ***Audrey Zibelman sang a different song then!
full transcript: includes Tom Wigley, Stephen Schneider, Fred Singer, Pat Michaels, Richard Lindzen, Kevin Trenberth plus many more…
11 Apr 2000: PBS: “What’s Up With the Weather?”
A NOVA/FRONTLINE Special Report; Written, produced and directed by Jon Palfreman
Vice Pres. AL GORE: Global warming is real.
NARRATOR: Or is it?
FRED PALMER, Western Fuels Association, Inc.: There is no basis to say that more CO2 in the air is going to lead to catastrophic global warming.
NARRATOR: But what do we really know about the greenhouse effect?
JAMES TREFIL, George Mason University: You’re dealing with something where there is legitimate uncertainty in the science…
(SCROLL DOWN)
NARRATOR: What few people realize is how much energy is being consumed 24 hours a day. Even at 3:00 in the morning, 55 percent of the load is operating.
***AUDREY ZIBELMAN, President, ***NSP Energy Marketing: Nothing totally shuts down, and even at 3:00 o’clock, you have the street lights on. You have factories that are working on a 24-hour period. And what we’ll do at the night time is run our cheapest units, our coal and our nuclear units. And those are the units we call our baseload units that we use all the time. And they produce the lowest-cost energy.
About 7:00 o’clock, our load will start to pick up as people get up and go to work, and buildings start opening up and air conditioners go on. What we’ll do is turn on different generating plants as demand increases…
LARRY TAYLOR, President, NSP Electric: Southwestern Minnesota has some of the best wind characteristics of any site in the United States. The problem with wind is that the wind, on the average, blows 25 percent of the time. And it blows the strongest in the spring and the fall, when our loads are the lowest. At our peak times, in the peak summer, peak winter, it generally- a lot of times it produces zero. We can’t count on it being there. We have to wait for the wind. If the wind’s there, great. If it isn’t, then we’ll have to open the throttles on something else…
NARRATOR: In business for 15 years, Sunray, in southern California, is one of the longest-running solar plants in the world. Its 30-acre field of mirrors captures the energy of the sun and turns it into electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. But it can only generate power when the sun shines.
BRETT HOOVER, Sunray Energy, Inc.: The coal plant can generate year ’round, 24 hours a day. You know, here, you know,, we can just kind of run when the sun’s out, which is out quite a bit. You know, we get about 265 days of sunshine here. But if you get any kind of high stratus clouds or anything like that, you’ll see your power just go right off the grid.
NARRATOR: When the sun’s out, Sunray produces 30 megawatts of electricity. While impressive, it can’t yet compete with the coal plant next door, which produces nearly 800 megawatts, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for a quarter of the cost.
Solar power has shown that it can play a valuable role in specific locations where the sun is plentiful, especially in the developing world, in areas remote from the electrical grid. The issue is whether renewables can be scaled up to generate the massive amounts of energy that coal and nuclear do, whether they can one day produce the trillions of watts the world’s cities need, whether they can ever replace fossil fuels…
MARTY HOFFERT, New York University: Most people want to turn on the lights at night, and the sun isn’t shining at night. Renewables tend to be very episodic. That is, they’re not always there. And the power density is low. That is, the number of watts per square meter is pretty low.
NARRATOR: And this may be a crucial weakness. Because the energy density of solar, wind and biomass is low, very large areas of land will be needed to produce significant amounts of power.
MARTY HOFFERT: There’s going to be a certain inevitable amount of land use issues associated with renewable energy, in that you’re going to need a lot of area. If you wanted to supply 10 terrawatts of power and you wanted to do it with biomass energy, you would need an area of the Earth equal approximately 10 percent of the Earth’s surface, land surface area. And that’s a huge amount of land. That’s all the land that’s used in human agriculture right now.
Now, if you needed 30 terrawatts and you wanted to do it with biomass, you would need three times as much. So you could sort of imagine a world where the only things on the planet would be human beings and wheat, and we would eat the wheat and we would use the wheat to make alcohol for our vehicles, but there wouldn’t be any other biological diversity because we would have appropriated all of the land surfaces to do that. That’s the kind of issue that you have to deal with when you seriously talk about stabilizing CO2 in the atmosphere…
NARRATOR: In a rare display of unity, the Senate voted 95 to nothing declaring their opposition to Kyoto…
Climate scientists, who had seen the treaty as a small first step, were stunned…
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/etc/script.html
***Wikipedia: Northern States Power Company (NSP) was a publicly traded S&P 500 electric and natural gas utility holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that is now a subsidiary of Xcel Energy…
Xcel merger
However, in 1998, after the failed Primergy merger, NSP merged with New Century Energies of Denver, owner of Public Service Company of Colorado and Southwestern Public Service, to form Xcel Energy…
Zibelman LinkedIn states she was with Excel 1992 – 2004 but, for most that time, it would have been simply NSP, which is never named in her bios.
July 1999: BizJournals: Wind mandate a breeze for MN
By Jennifer Niemela
But wind energy has its drawbacks as well, said Audrey Zibelman, president of NSP’s energy marketing. While some customers are happy to pay a little more for energy from a renewable source like wind, even the relatively small difference between wind and cheaper but non-renewable fossil fuels is a big deal to large industrial customers whose electric bills top $30 million per year. NSP actually gets complaints about the amount of renewable energy sources it uses, Zibelman said.
And while wind blows at a relatively consistent average of 18 mph in Lake Benton — the optimal speed for harnessing wind power with turbines — most places aren’t so blessed. Wind is intermittent by nature, and like all sources of electric energy, it is not storable. Energy from coal and nuclear sources is reliable because those plants can work around the clock, producing energy as it’s needed.
“This morning we had 85 megawatts of wind generation operating on high winds at the Buffalo Ridge,” the geographical formation that makes Lake Benton so windy, Zibelman said. “Then we lost wind generation instantaneously, just when people are getting up to go to work, turning on their lights. We have to have other resources.”
And the locations where wind generation is feasible — farmland, for the most part — are generally the most sparsely populated, making it necessary to install energy transmission lines that aren’t particularly cost-effective or environmentally friendly, Zibelman said.
“It’s not simply a question of renewable and non-renewable energy,” she said. “You have to keep in mind that electricity is an essential commodity.”…
While NSP doesn’t have specific plans to increase its use of wind, Zibelman said she’d like to implement a plan whereby customers could choose their energy source. Environmentally conscious customers willing to pay a little more for renewable energy could do so and cost-sensitive industrial customers could stick with cheaper fossil fuels. That way, the energy business in Minnesota would truly be market-driven. Right now, NSP is trying to learn as much as it can about renewable energy and its benefits and drawbacks, but it’s waiting to see whether the federal government enacts wind energy policy before it changes its own wind energy goals…
Most agree that with some incentive from the federal government like tax credits, the goal of 5 percent by 2020 is attainable…
https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/1999/07/19/focus2.html
10
Even the Americans are working out Wind is a Load of Bollocks
The Wind Energy Fiasco, Writ Large
Posted on May 13, 2018 by John Hinderaker in Energy Policy
The Wind Energy Fiasco, Writ Large
Until such time as electricity can be stored at scale, wind energy is a terrible idea. Across the U.S., wind turbines produce electricity approximately 40% of the time. That means they are unreliable. Since we expect the lights to go on 100% of the time, we need enough reliable energy sources–coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric–to meet peak load. Which means that wind energy is inevitably an expensive sideshow. Why do wind farms exist? Solely because of government subsidies. Warren Buffett, one of the largest wind farm investors, said:
[O]n wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.
If wind turbines are a bad idea, enormous wind turbines are worse. It is not good news that GE has announced the biggest wind turbine ever. How big is it? A bit shorter than the Eiffel Tower. And it is intended for offshore placement:
My state, Minnesota, has relentlessly promoted “green” energy in the form of wind. At least $15 billion has been spent on wind turbines and transmission lines, to virtually no effect, apart from the fact that electricity rates here have risen 23% faster than the national average. Taxpayers and ratepayers have been fleeced, and government cronies and utilities have profited handily.
My think tank, Center of the American Experiment, is the only group that has taken on the state’s feckless “green” energy policies. You can read our report, co-authored by Steve Hayward, here. Currently, we have billboards up across southern Minnesota, the area where wind farms are located. (No one develops wind farms in or near wealthy suburbs. Instead, they are located in rural areas and billions are spent on transmission lines to carry electricity to where it is consumed.) This is one of our billboards:
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Oh dear! If Audrey was only partly responsible fir the debacle in NYC, Australia better beware!
http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com.au/2018/05/this-is-one-of-most-important-emails.html
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Targeting Zibelman seems a tad unfair. A more appropriate target for Australia’s expensive and largely useless renewable energy program is the federal government, which mandates the share of electricity which must be sourced from renewable energy technologies.
Granted Zibelman seems an enthusiastic promoter of the government’s policy, but promotion of a company’s remit would be expected of any officer in any organisation. AEMO is 60% owned by the federal and state governments, and 40% by companies operating in the energy industry. Implementing their joint agreed agenda is Zibelman’s primary responsibility.
AEMO’s CEO is appointed by AEMO’s Board, ie, under normal corporate governance arrangements. The Board must have taken into account Zibelman’s record of renewables advocacy in the US, and judged that activity as useful experience for an organisation responsible for the security of Australia’s electricity supply within the energy mix constraints set by the federal government (and supplemented somewhat cavalierly by additional renewable targets set by state governments).
Note also that AEMO’s Board is appointed by the COAG Energy Council, on the advice of an independent Selection Panel.
Hence, the governance arrangements for AEMO seem relatively transparent and robust, in line with standard corporate governance arrangements in Australia.
Zibelman’s role within this corporate governance structure seems reasonably standard.
As noted earlier, the federal and state governments are the entities responsible for Australia’s somewhat bizarre and ineffective subsidies and related support for renewable power generation technologies. Go after them, and, ultimately, the people that vote them in. Many people are already fed up with high energy costs for no demonstrable benefit, and it ought to be relatively easy to convince them that Australia’s response to the global warming hypothesis needs to be more nuanced, better judged and targeted, and less economically damaging for our industry and domestic consumers.
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Indeed Andrew, and I mentioned Turnbull in the post for exactly that reason.
That he would select someone like Zibelman, with her activist role, says a lot about him.
Nonethess, the people of Australia need to know that the AEMO will not be speaking on their behalf, nor making recommendations to reduce the extortionate price of electricity. Zibelman still needs to answer to 60% of the shareholders.
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Jo,
The Penny keeps dropping in America – Other than Nuclear, could have been written about Australia
Who Turned Off the Lights?
Is anyone paying attention to the crisis that is going on in our electric power markets?
Over the past six months, at least four major nuclear power plants have been slated for shutdown, including the last one in operation in California. Meanwhile, dozens of coal plants have been shuttered as well — despite low prices and cleaner coal. Some of our major coal companies may go into bankruptcy.
This is a dangerous game we are playing with our most valuable resource outside of clean air and water. Traditionally, we’ve received almost half our electric power nationwide from coal and nuclear power, and for good reason. They are cheap, highly resilient and reliable.
The disruption to coal and nuclear power wouldn’t be disturbing if this were happening as a result of market forces. That’s only partially the case.
The amazing shale oil and gas revolution is providing Americans with cheap gas for home heating and power generation. Hooray. The price of natural gas has fallen by nearly two-thirds over the last decade, and this has put enormous price pressure on other forms of power generation.
But this is not a free-market story of Schumpeterian creative destruction. If it were, then wind and solar power would have been shut down years ago. They can’t possibly compete on a level playing field with $3 natural gas.
In most markets, solar and wind power survive purely because the states mandate that as much as 30 percent of residential and commercial power come from these sources. The utilities have to buy it regardless of price. The California state legislature just mandated solar panels for homes built after 2020 (an added construction cost of about $10,000 per home).
Over $100 billion in subsidies have been doled out to big wind and big solar over the last decade. Even with the avalanche of taxpayer subsidies and bailout funds, many of these companies, such as Solyndra (which received $500 million in handouts), failed.
These industries are not anywhere close to self-sufficiency. Without a continuation of a multibillion-dollar tax credit, the wind turbines would stop turning.
This combines with the left’s war on coal through regulations that have destroyed coal plants in many areas. (Thank goodness for the exports of coal, or the industry would be in much bigger trouble.)
Bottom line: Our power market is a Soviet central planner’s dream come true, and it is extinguishing our coal and nuclear industries. (Could describe AEMO in Australia?}
Why should anyone care?
First, because government subsidies, regulations and mandates make electric power more expensive. Natural gas prices have fallen by two-thirds, but electric power costs have still risen in most areas.
More importantly, the electric power market isn’t accurately pricing in the value of resilience and reliability. What is the value of making sure the lights don’t go off? What is the cost to the economy and human health if we have rolling brownouts because the grid doesn’t have enough juice?
Politicians and federal regulators are shortsightedly killing our coal and nuclear capacities without considering the risk of future energy shortages and power disruptions. Once a nuclear plant is shutdown, you can’t just fire it back up again when you need it.
Wind and solar are notoriously unreliable. Most places where wind power is used, coal plants are needed to back up the system during peak energy use and when the wind isn’t blowing.
The first choice to fix energy markets is to finally end the tangled web of layers of taxpayer subsidies and mandates and let the market choose. Alas, that’s nearly impossible, given the political clout of big wind and solar.
The second-best solution is for the regulators and utilities to take into account the reliability and safety of our energy. Would people be willing to pay a little more for their power to ensure against brownouts? I sure would. The cost of having too little energy far exceeds the cost of having too much.
A glass of water costs pennies, but if you’re in a desert dying of thirst, that water may be worth thousands of dollars.
I’ll admit I’m not sure what the best solution is to the power plant closures. But if we have major towns and cities in the country without electric power for stretches of time because of green-energy fixation, Americans are going to be mighty angry, and our economy will take a major hit.
When our manufacturers, schools, hospitals and internet shut down, we’re not going to think wind and solar power are so chic.
If the lights start to go out five or 10 years from now, we will look back at what is happening today and wonder how we could have been so darn stupid.
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Andrew Deakin…
Targeting Audrey Zibelman’s not at all unfair IMO. She’s running the show…..having HER way with the essential service that underpins absolutely everything that happens in Australia…its very existence as a first world country…designing Australia’s future for decades to come.
Although he’s a full-on warmist and wants a carbon tax…ETS etc, Danny Price of Frontier Economics has described the NEM under AEMO’s Zibelman as heading ‘towards a third-world power system very rapidly’. “And it’s very hard to arrest a decline in the quality of our power system.”
In his February 2018 speech he says of Zibelman….
[ ‘Recently, the Chair of AEMO boasted that she could achieve bigger reductions in emissions than either the government or the opposition policies contemplate. While this boast delighted the Greens, given it was made in the context of AEMO complaining about the restrictions of the National Electricity Rules on their power, it ought to alarm any right thinking policy makers that may be left in government about what is happening to a key NEM institution.
Aside from the cancerous effect lack of public accountability has on policy making generally, the fact that one of the key NEM organisations feels it appropriate to make such an audacious, public grab for power is nothing short of alarming for investors.
In freeing AEMO of accountability all Australians will be enslaved to their goals.
One of the great strengths of the NEM for investors was that there was a rigorous process for changing the rules.
The Commonwealth has fundamentally undermined this important foundation of the NEM.
On the back of advice from Alan Finkel, the government has created the environment where there is a blurring of roles and responsibilities of the different institutions and created opportunities for AEMO to empire build.
AEMO is using the lack of any policy leadership to grab more political power. More political power for AEMO means greater costs for consumers.’ ]
The public grab for power Price speaks of is made clear by AEMO…
‘- ‘In contrast to recent government energy white papers, which ignored climate, AEMO sets at the very minimum a 70 per cent cut in emissions by 2050, and includes a “fast change” scenario that aims for a 52 per cent cut by 2030 (rather than 26-28 per cent), and a 90 per cent cut by 2050.’
…’ a trajectory consistent with the Australian Government’s broader commitment to the COP21 Paris agreement to limit global mean temperature rise to 2°C,” it says.’
The government says it’s sticking to its 26-28% by 2030 FOR NOW…but all bets will be off if Turnbull finally has an election win….and has Zibelman and Finkel and his PMO full og Greens …and his son Alex …part owner of Infigen Energy in his ear.
From when she was still in New York State, Zibelman was only interested in ‘ “distributed energy resources” – solar, wind, batteries, smart thermostats and consumer demand management’ and a ‘ 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.’
“Rooftop solar, energy storage (from household batteries to electric vehicles), smart energy management technology, and the aggregation of demand are all areas where demand, rather than generation, can become the state’s PRIMARY energy resource,” Ms Zibelman wrote in 2016….of New York State.
From the moment she arrived in Australia Audrey Zibelman was hell bent on getting rid of coal.
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Jo,
As a side issue to the green bias of the new AEMO boss, I have noticed that the AEMO has, apparently, stopped publishing the Medium Term Projected Assessment of System Adequacy (MTPASA) forecasts to the general public. For months there has been a message saying that the system was “being re-developed”.
Now the message has changed to read:
“AEMO completed the MTPASA redevelopment project on 10 May 2018. The MTPASA graphs are available through the Participants Markets Portal area at https://portal.prod.nemnet.net.au.
For any questions please contact the Information and Support Hub via supporthub@aemo.com.au or call 1300 236 600″
Attempts to got to the site https://portal.prod.nemnet.net.au generates the message “This site can’t be reached. portal.prod.nemnet.net.au took too long to respond.”
It’s probably coincidence. It couldn’t be that AEMO doesn’t want the public to know how often the Victorian and South Australian electricity system will fail to deliver adequate electricity supply, could it?
I tried the telephone number shown and an AEMO employee named Nicholas confirmed that access to the site portal.prod.nemnet.net.au is limited to market participants and that the MT PASA data is no longer available to the public. Nicholas was unable to provide a reason for the change and suggested I email the support group.
I have emailed supporthub@aemo.com.au with the following:
“Dear Sir/ Madam,
I noticed that the redevelopment of the MT PASA data page on the data dashboard has been completed, but that the information on that page is no longer available to the general public and is limited to market participants.
What is the reason for that change, please?
Thank you in advance for your prompt reply/
Pat.
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If and when I receive a reply, I’ll send it to you, Jo.
Pat
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“who thinks we can change the weather with our power supply.”
Straw man.
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