If ever the stupidity of Daniel Andrews is in question regarding...

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    If ever the stupidity of Daniel Andrews is in question regarding renewable energy read the article set out below written by Angela Macdonald-Smith and published in the AFR today.

    Labor ideology getting ion the way of real solutions. Reflects badly on Labor's Daniel Andrews and treasurer Tim Pallas who has run out of money.

    Regards......Daicosisgod

    Snowy CEO calls on Vic govt to act on transmission
    Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Senior Resources Writer
    Aug 26, 2019 — 12.01am
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    The Tumut 3 plant could have helped prevent the January 2019 blackouts with more transmission capacity, Snowy CEO Paul Broad said. AAP
    Snowy Hydro chief executive Paul Broad says the Victorian government must bring forward the building of a crucial transmission link if it wants to prevent summer blackouts hitting the state.
    When more than 200,000 homes and businesses in Victoria had their power cut off in a heatwave on January 25, some 1500 megawatts of generation capacity was lying idle in NSW, unable to pass down the network and keep their air conditioners humming.

    The situation frustrated Mr Broad, who was driven to speak out after last week's warning by the Australian Energy Market Operator that a similar blackout risk faces potentially more than a million households this coming summer in Victoria, and many more elsewhere over the next several summers.
    "The answer to keeping the lights on in Victoria is simple: invest in transmission," he told The Australian Financial Review in an interview.

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    "New energy generation coming online needs to be able to connect to the system and better interconnectivity between the states will help energy flows across the National Electricity Market."
    An upgrade of up to 460 megawatts in the transfer capacity between NSW, Queensland and Victoria was identified as a priority project in AEMO's long-term blueprint for the power grid published last July. But Mr Broad said the projects are taking too long and need to be accelerated to provide earlier relief to the over-stretched system.

    "AEMO has already identified key transmission routes, including the KerangLink in Victoria which should be built today, not in the late 2020s, to bring more energy online and lower prices for consumers," he said.
    Mr Broad said Snowy has been raising its concerns about transmission with the Victorian government and regulators for two years without much action resulting. Lengthy tests carried out on proposed investments in transmission and distribution investments to protect consumers for paying too much for electricity slow down projects but he said the Victorian government could potentially cover the required investment up-front.

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    "If the Victorian government was serious about energy security they would bring forward the KerangLink and underwrite the transmission regulatory risk if necessary," Mr Broad said.
    The Snowy CEO joined large energy users in criticising the over-reliance on what are supposed to be emergency back-up measures to keep the power on.

    "Instead of acting on transmission, Victoria is happy to rely on AEMO significantly expanding its Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader role, which is meant to be the option of last resort," he said.
    "The RERT is very costly for consumers and deters investment in new entrant peaking plants which ironically makes the system even less secure in the long run."
    Mr Broad noted that when the RERT was activated on January 19, 2018, it cost consumers $24 million at $62,000 a megawatt hour, more than four times the maximum wholesale market prices of $14,500/MWh.
    The comments come as Snowy is working to develop a 2000 MW expansion of pumped hydro capacity through its controversial Snowy 2.0 mega-project,which is set to cost about $5 billion before an estimated $2 billion of investment required in transmission lines into the rest of NSW and into Victoria. The capacity lying idle in January's blackouts was at Snowy's existing Tumut 3 pumped hydro plant in the Snowy Mountains.

    Accelerating investment in transmission still wouldn't help Victoria this summer, when the worst-case scenario of delays in repairing two large coal and gas generating units poses the risk of a four-hour blackout for up to 1.3 million households, according to AEMO.
    But Mr Broad suggested the interconnector upgrade could be completed several years earlier than is currently scheduled, potentially by about 2023.
    "Transmission investment was needed yesterday, especially in Victoria, given the lines will take some years to build," he said.
 
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