Another widespread power outage in SA

[bits]

embark on an ambitious energy infrastructure program to underground the power lines

I love it when the Government starts saying what I am saying.
It feels like Christmas.

[monotonehell]

embark on an ambitious energy infrastructure program to underground the power lines

I love it when the Government starts saying what I am saying.
It feels like Christmas.

Bits, that's what Shuz wrote on Jay's Facebook post. Jay's just been saying that it's SAPN's problem.

[bits]

embark on an ambitious energy infrastructure program to underground the power lines

I love it when the Government starts saying what I am saying.
It feels like Christmas.

Bits, that's what Shuz wrote on Jay's Facebook post. Jay's just been saying that it's SAPN's problem.

Noo, my beautiful dream. Ruined!

[mshagg]

A lot of residents in the hills didn't have power for 3 - 4 days. Is that acceptable ?

Completely acceptable. If you choose to live in an area like that, presumably because you enjoy being surrounded by large trees, then be prepared for when some of them fall on your house, damage your infrastructure, or ignite in a bushfire. If you cant deal with that then move to the suburbs.

Or perhaps more to the point, don't expect everyone else to subsidise the lifestyle by undergrounding your power lines.

[Vee]

AEMO report on changes to wind farm settings in wake of state blackouts

The Australian Energy Market Operator says it is confident that adjustments made to wind farm software means there is no risk of the South Australia blackout being repeated in the future.

AEMO chairman Tony Marxsen told more than 100 energy experts at a presentation under the auspices of the Electrical Energy Society of Australia last week that the “system black” event in South Australia in September – which has set off a huge debate about renewable energy across the country – would not be repeated.

According to several people who attended the talk, Marxsen said AEMO had analysed the failures that contributed to the blackout, and their possible remedies, such as making power poles more resistant to strong winds and better demand response programs.

So far, he said, only one remedy had been implemented – adjusting the ride-through settings on the wind farms in the state. Extensive AEMO modelling, Marxsen told the audience, showed that this would be enough to prevent a repeat of the “system black” event that put the whole state in darkness for several hours.

“If the same sequence of events happened today the system black would not occur,” Marxsen told the audience

This is an important concession from AEMO. It suggests that South Australia, even with around 40 per cent wind energy and a further 6 per cent from rooftop solar, is not at risk of a system-wide shut-down that affected the state late last year.

Isolated blackouts occur everywhere (storm cells etc) - renewables or not!

Of course, there is little the AEMO can do to prevent isolated blackouts, such as the storm-related events that affected more than 100,000 customers in Western Australia last year, and blackouts in Queensland, where there is no large-scale renewables.

Settings

In its reports after the blackout, AEMO said it was not the nature of wind energy (i.e. its variability) that contributed to the blackout, but the ride through settings on the wind farms.

Apparently unbeknown to AEMO, many wind farms had ride through settings that forced the turbines to shut down as a self-protection mechanism after a handful of major faults or voltage changes in a short period of time.

Cultural change. NY vision

....But that cultural change is likely to come soon, with AEMO’s appointment of a new CEO, Audrey Zibelman, who has been running the state of New York’s ambitious Reforming the Energy Vision program, which looks to a renewables-based distributed gridin response to the blackouts caused by Hurricane Sandy.

New York intends to reach 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 – a target proposed for Australia by Labor that has caused so much controversy in political circles and the mainstream media.

But it is not just Zibelman pushing this line. Chief scientist Alan Finkel, in his draft report prompted by the SA blackout, said while there were challenges to incorporating high levels of variable renewables, there were ready technology solutions.

He also pointed out that the wind farm settings had been identified and solved in Europe a decade ago.

CSIRO and grid owners

This view was echoed and re-inforced by a report from the CSIRO and Energy Networks Australia, which represents the nation’s grid owners, which said that Australia could, and should, aim for high levels of renewable energy – both for climate and environmental reasons and because it was cheaper.

It also envisioned a grid in South Australia with more than 80 per cent renewables, a level the state appears to be heading to given the number of proposed and confirmed renewable energy projects.

AEMO responsibility?

There is a large body of experts that say AEMO could, and should, have taken a series of measures such as putting more gas plant on standby, or reducing the reliance on the interconnector to Victoria.

Marxsen, however, told the ESAA audience last week that there was no evidence that having more thermal capacity (coal or gas plants) could have avoided the sequence of events, given the amount of wind capacity that was lost when the fault ride through mechanisms were triggered.

Renew Economy:
http://reneweconomy.com.au/aemo-says-wi ... ted-43631/

[Kasey771]

I was reading the how SA coped article and this picture popped up
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/f5cb ... ?width=650

The caption is:

"3 people pull up a pew at the Chimney hole"


Where is the Chimney Hole please?

[monotonehell]

I was reading the how SA coped article and this picture popped up
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/f5cb ... ?width=650

The caption is:

"3 people pull up a pew at the Chimney hole"


Where is the Chimney Hole please?

There a Chimney Hole Dam, in Andamooka Station.
https://goo.gl/maps/fDtKKDBtxcC2

[Kasey771]

I was reading the how SA coped article and this picture popped up
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/f5cb ... ?width=650

The caption is:

"3 people pull up a pew at the Chimney hole"


Where is the Chimney Hole please?

There a Chimney Hole Dam, in Andamooka Station.
https://goo.gl/maps/fDtKKDBtxcC2

Thank you. mystery solved

[rev]

Pardon my language to follow...

But WHY the fuck is the pant at pelican point always left off, and then turned on AFTER we have wide spread black outs?

What the actual fucking hell is AEMO doing?

Fuck the national market, turn on our power stations and someone go cut the interconnector and fuck this uncertainty.
Forced acquisition of outback power infrastructure from the private corporations more interested in profits then the interests of the state and people.

[bits]

Pelican Point did not turn on their second unit. The load shedding stopped due to reduced consumer demand.

Had the demand not reduced the outage would have continued indefinitely as the NEM/AEMO proved they are unable to secure any electricity for consumer demand.


http://engie.com.au/media/newsitem.aspx ... ican-Point

https://www.aemo.com.au/Media-Centre/Me ... ent-Update

This was not a fault this was a planned outage on a 40+ day designed by NEM/AEMO.
These are the outages people should be screaming about and demand for heads to roll.

Ps my house did not lose power.

[Goodsy]

from Jay Weatherill's Facebook

Last night's decision by AEMO to cut power to about 40,000 homes for half an hour was totally and utterly unacceptable. Worst of all, it was avoidable.

It's absolutely clear to us that South Australia is now on its own when it comes to the National Electricity Market.

The time for excuses is over. The blame game must end.

So, as a Government, we will step up and take control of our own future.

We have been planning to intervene dramatically in the South Australian electricity market. Those plans are well-advanced.

What we have at the moment is a market that is all about dollars and cents. It's not about people, it's not about businesses and jobs.

We're going to put YOU, the people of South Australia, back in the heart of this electricity market.

Rest assured, we'll back up our words with action.

[Hooligan]

Load shedding sounds kind of sexual.

[rev]

from Jay Weatherill's Facebook

Last night's decision by AEMO to cut power to about 40,000 homes for half an hour was totally and utterly unacceptable. Worst of all, it was avoidable.

It's absolutely clear to us that South Australia is now on its own when it comes to the National Electricity Market.

The time for excuses is over. The blame game must end.

So, as a Government, we will step up and take control of our own future.

We have been planning to intervene dramatically in the South Australian electricity market. Those plans are well-advanced.

What we have at the moment is a market that is all about dollars and cents. It's not about people, it's not about businesses and jobs.

We're going to put YOU, the people of South Australia, back in the heart of this electricity market.

Rest assured, we'll back up our words with action.

Let's hope so.

[monotonehell]

from Jay Weatherill's Facebook

Last night's decision by AEMO to cut power to about 40,000 homes for half an hour was totally and utterly unacceptable. Worst of all, it was avoidable.

It's absolutely clear to us that South Australia is now on its own when it comes to the National Electricity Market.

The time for excuses is over. The blame game must end.

So, as a Government, we will step up and take control of our own future.

We have been planning to intervene dramatically in the South Australian electricity market. Those plans are well-advanced.

What we have at the moment is a market that is all about dollars and cents. It's not about people, it's not about businesses and jobs.

We're going to put YOU, the people of South Australia, back in the heart of this electricity market.

Rest assured, we'll back up our words with action.

Them's fighting words, Jay!

I wonder what they have planned? Massive buy back of all infrastructure and nationalise it? I doubt it.

[JAKJ]

The blatant politisiation of the the power outages by the Fed Libs is a complete and utter disgrace and the definition of "fake news". These blackouts have been caused by a variety of factors include 1) weather events 2) predatory price fixing behaviour by generators 3) The infamous operational interconnect to Victoria being wholly inadequate to operate SA as part of the NEM 4) some instances of mild incompetence on SA power networks behalf. What clearly has not been a root cause of the black outs is SA's renewable energy mix which is a source of innovation and technological/ operational expertise we should be proud of. Yes there are teething issues, as with any transition of this magnitude but it has largely been a success. Shame on the Federal liberal party for trying to undermine it.