{"id":353685,"date":"2024-12-09T19:13:29","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T18:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=353685"},"modified":"2024-12-09T19:13:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T18:13:30","slug":"grid-not-fit-for-purpose-on-a-warm-day-crazy-australia-paid-3-5m-to-industry-to-stop-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=353685","title":{"rendered":"Grid not-fit-for-purpose: On a warm day, Crazy Australia paid $3.5m to industry to *stop* working"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joanne Nova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Australian electricity grid is not-fit-for-purpose. And failure is being normalized.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Last Wednesday, during the near-miss of a blackout in Sydney,<\/a> the AEMO spent $3,558,000 on \u201cdemand reduction\u201d which means they paid productive industries to stop working to save the grid from a blackout. What it really means is that electricity users in New South Wales paid $3.5 million to businesses to do nothing, because the grid didn\u2019t have enough energy, and the people in charge really didn\u2019t want any embarrassing blackouts so close to an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So renewables are wonderful, clean and cheap but your workers, assets and capital will sometimes need to sit around and do nothing so we can stop some storms in the 22nd century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In political spin, planned blackouts can also be called \u201cVirtual Power Plants\u201d<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDemand Management\u201d is a smarmy marketing word for a lot of little Blackouts. In the lexicon of a failing grid, all the bad-words get tortured into iced doughnuts \u2014 if your company has agreed to be ready to shut down at a moment\u2019s notice on a warm day, that\u2019s not being on \u201cStandby to Close\u201d, instead your business is a \u201c\u201cpre-activated\u201d extra reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Renewable-World-Psychosis bad is good: your smelter used to make aluminum, but now you can sell \u201celectricity use reduction\u201d as well, and the AEMO (the grid manager in Australia) will call you a \u201cVirtual Power Plant\u201d too. Australian companies can now sell their own blackouts back to the grid. Neat eh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, you and I are probably thinking about this all wrong \u2014 like electricity is a net good, and a dead smelter is a waste of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Rolfe, <\/strong>Daily Telegraph<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman told an energy planning and regulation Senate committee hearing that the market operator spent $3,557,700 on reducing demand to increase emergency reserves in NSW on Wednesday November 27 as a supply shortage took shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Westerman indicated AEMO did not end up having to reduce Wednesday\u2019s demand by as much as first expected. But, in anticipation of a greater shortfall than eventuated, AEMO had \u201cpre-activated\u201d extra reserves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Westerman said the purchased electricity use reduction<\/strong> came from \u201cvirtual power plants\u201d<\/strong>, which were an \u201caggregation of \u2026 smaller demand.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For what it\u2019s worth, which is not much, the large aluminium smelter Tomago, was not forced to shut down, but it was \u201cpre-activated\u201d and ready to close. Apparently, even though the cool weather change came through, they shut down that afternoon anyway, or perhaps they just gave up.  Who could blame them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australians are not just paying companies to do nothing, they pay them to be ready<\/em> to do nothing too. There\u2019s a part payment for the pre-activated companies, even if they don\u2019t have to switch off. It reflects the hassle of running an industrial outfit with your hand on power lever, and your brain in the state of uncertainty. And that\u2019s the thing isn\u2019t it \u2014 no company is going to be more productive \u201con standby\u201d than it is running full tilt. It\u2019s a stupid way to run a nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia is on the road to becoming a \u201cpre-activated nation\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re a first world country ready to be the third world at a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty soon the whole country will be paying itself to be on standby, or selling our own blackouts back to the grid, what then, eh? The Stone Age?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your air conditioner can be a virtual power plant too<\/h4>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Image by\u00a0\u042d\u043b\u044c\u0432\u0438\u043d\u0430 \u042f\u043a\u0443\u0431\u043e\u0432\u0430<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

John Rolfe in the Daily Telegraph found a Monash Uni professor who was cheerfully telling the world Australians will need to give up control of their air-conditioners so their AEMO masters can turn them down on hot days when they need them the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Dargaville is an expert in \u201clarge-scale energy system transition optimisation\u201d \u2014  a thing that\u2019s never happened once, anywhere in the world. So it\u2019s like being a specialist in Yetis except with less credibility. There\u2019s a possibility that a real Yeti exists, but we know for a fact, there aren\u2019t any optimal large-scale<\/em> renewables grids. There aren\u2019t even any optimal small scale grids, just different scales of blackouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australians fuming over big change coming to air-con, house power control<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Dr Dargaville \u2026 said authorities would have to expand their options to deal with more frequent instances of surprisingly high demand and low supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Options were likely to include the installation of \u201cwidgets\u201d on aircons that allow third parties to engage \u201ceconomy mode\u201d to reduce power use in peak periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked in a Newspoll: \u201cShould authorities be allowed to take control of power usage in your household?\u201d,<\/em> naturally, 94% said \u201cNo\u201d. But we know that when they are offered a $400 cashback for a \u201csmart\u201d but government-controlled air conditioner, they may buy the plan. It\u2019s already happening in Queensland<\/a>. It\u2019s only supposed to be a few days a year, but last summer, the grid officials reached into their homes and turned off their air conditioners six times in two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Dargaville speaks for The Blob \u2014 You will own nothing (and be hot and bothered):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026consumers should not be alarmed by such moves, he said. \u201cThere will be a period of adjustment but it will be become normalised,\u201d Dr Dargaville told [The Daily Telegraph]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, it\u2019s not their fault \u2014 they blame climate change, and fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the energy system was less volatile you wouldn\u2019t need to use it,\u201d he added, but that was unrealistic given more extreme weather, reduced reliability of coal-fired power and more generation from variable sources such as wind and solar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every part of this trend is a step in a dumb direction. We\u2019re paying more for less in every single aspect. More people sit around being useless, or half useful, or distracted. More companies make fewer goods. And more government makes more government which is the worst thing of all\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who control the energy, control the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t David Maddison, Strop<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared at JoNova<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, during the near-miss of a blackout in Sydney, the AEMO spent $3,558,000 on \u201cdemand reduction\u201d which means they paid productive industries to stop working to save the grid from a blackout. What it really means is that electricity users in New South Wales paid $3.5 million to businesses to do nothing, because the grid didn\u2019t have enough energy, and the people in charge really didn\u2019t want any embarrassing blackouts so close to an election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":353686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818907,691818216,691818226,691820781,691818728],"class_list":{"0":"post-353685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-aemo","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-blackout","11":"tag-electricity-grid","12":"tag-wind-and-solar","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/00Australia-Sydney-Opera-House-night-scaled-1.jpg?fit=2560%2C1436&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1u0B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":352515,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=352515","url_meta":{"origin":353685,"position":0},"title":"Not even summer, with one warm week, and the Australian grid is on the verge of blackouts","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/11\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s not even summer\u00a0and the Australian grid is having heart palpitations. The Blob are in concert \u2014 blackouts might be at hand, and they want us to blame the heat (it\u2019s code for climate change). Let\u2019s get a grip, we\u2019re only\u00a0talking about a Sydney forecast of 33\u00b0C\u00a0(all of 91F).","rel":"","context":"In \"AEMO (Australia Energy Market Operator)\"","block_context":{"text":"AEMO (Australia Energy Market Operator)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=aemo-australia-energy-market-operator"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0-Australian-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0-Australian-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0-Australian-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0-Australian-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0-Australian-Blackout.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":330200,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=330200","url_meta":{"origin":353685,"position":1},"title":"Blackouts Beckon: Calm Nights Mean Wind & Solar \u2018Transition\u2019 Nothing But Grand\u00a0Delusion","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/05\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Rent-seekers and the wind and sun cult who run with them are in a flat panic as they realise that their game is up. Mouthing off about an \u2018inevitable transition\u2019 to an all wind and sun powered future was always going to come unstuck. Reality has a tendency of biting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\u2019s Eastern Grid\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia\u2019s Eastern Grid","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australias-eastern-grid"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/00-blackout-GettyImages-466231145-770.jpg?fit=1200%2C779&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/00-blackout-GettyImages-466231145-770.jpg?fit=1200%2C779&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/00-blackout-GettyImages-466231145-770.jpg?fit=1200%2C779&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/00-blackout-GettyImages-466231145-770.jpg?fit=1200%2C779&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/00-blackout-GettyImages-466231145-770.jpg?fit=1200%2C779&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":301923,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=301923","url_meta":{"origin":353685,"position":2},"title":"Professor Dargaville: We Need More Grid Scale Batteries to Combat Supply Outages","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"15\/02\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Wild weather has pushed the Aussie State of Victoria\u2019s fragile grid beyond breaking point during the last few days. The last thing Victoria needs is senior academics pushing non-solutions.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/00destroyed-wind-turbine-636817004.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/00destroyed-wind-turbine-636817004.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/00destroyed-wind-turbine-636817004.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/00destroyed-wind-turbine-636817004.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/00destroyed-wind-turbine-636817004.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":352822,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=352822","url_meta":{"origin":353685,"position":3},"title":"Pull down the blinds. We\u2019re in a Transition to the Third World","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/11\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Australia is too poor to use air-conditioning and dishwashers on a warm day Welcome to Bananaustralia.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/04OPETS3_image_crop_17923.jpg?fit=1050%2C741&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/04OPETS3_image_crop_17923.jpg?fit=1050%2C741&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/04OPETS3_image_crop_17923.jpg?fit=1050%2C741&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/04OPETS3_image_crop_17923.jpg?fit=1050%2C741&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/04OPETS3_image_crop_17923.jpg?fit=1050%2C741&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":353198,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=353198","url_meta":{"origin":353685,"position":4},"title":"Solar power is so good the govt needs emergency powers to switch your panels off in case they crash the national grid","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/12\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It turns out those negative prices for electricity at midday are there for a reason. A firehose of electricity at lunchtime isn\u2019t always a good thing. Negative prices are not a bargain, they\u2019re the penalty a seller has to pay to get someone to take the toxic waste away, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0central-solar-repsol.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0central-solar-repsol.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0central-solar-repsol.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0central-solar-repsol.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0central-solar-repsol.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":354021,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=354021","url_meta":{"origin":353685,"position":5},"title":"The Grid Speaks","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/12\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes we feel that we, and our allies in the energy\/climate battle, are the only ones that face the reality that a national or regional electrical grid can be overloaded with wind and solar resources to the point that the reliability of the grid itself is threatened.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0-Darkness.jpeg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0-Darkness.jpeg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0-Darkness.jpeg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0-Darkness.jpeg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/0-Darkness.jpeg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=353685"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353692,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353685\/revisions\/353692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/353686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=353685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=353685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=353685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}