Thread: Big storm and no power in SA

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Seriously, I had a hamster. He ran in a wheel. Hook a generator up to him and he could power Victoria's public transport network.

Seriously, speaking of hamsters, I read that it has been calculated (by a very bored person) that a single Taipan can produce enough venom to kill 12,000 hamsters or guinea pigs (which don't come from Guinea and are not pigs).
David Hunt, True Girt: The Unauthorized History of Australia, Volume II, Black Ink, p. 327.
Fortunately, the sun still shines and the wind still blows, so hamsters are redundant.

the sun aint shining at the moment.

Originally Posted by Tombie

You do know you can not just shed power from the states 2 biggest consumers right?

Their processes don't lend to that at all....

Hearth going cold is not a good thing, nor is refractory cooling!


Hopefully we can find a solution soon...

Clearly you don't consider the possibility of 1000's of smaller companies having non critical loads that can be turned off safely for the duration of a typical load shedding event, say for ½ an hour, and not suffer unintended consequences. And getting paid for it. This has the possibility of saving large critical processes in your 2 biggest consumers from damage due to random load shedding.

Originally Posted by Eevo

the sun aint shining at the moment.

Did it make a hissing sound as it dropped into St Vincent's Gulf?

Originally Posted by bee utey

Clearly you don't consider the possibility of 1000's of smaller companies having non critical loads that can be turned off safely for the duration of a typical load shedding event, say for ½ an hour, and not suffer unintended consequences. And getting paid for it. This has the possibility of saving large critical processes in your 2 biggest consumers from damage due to random load shedding.

wont that system cost money to install and operate?

Originally Posted by bee utey

Did it make a hissing sound as it dropped into St Vincent's Gulf?

Originally Posted by Eevo

wont that system cost money to install and operate?

Ummm, dunno. Less that the cost of installing the same amount of extra peakers maybe?

Originally Posted by bee utey

Ummm, dunno. Less that the cost of installing the same amount of extra peakers maybe?

i'm thinking peakers would be a better idea. can be used anytime of the year
where demand reduction would only happen a few days each year

also, demand reduction has been unpopular in VIC. yes i know its targeted towards residential not business.

the cost of installing meters that can disconnect load would be expensive.

500,000 places at 1k a pop each.

plus, need to monitor, maintain and run the infrastructure associated with this system.



i like the idea of demand reduction in principle but i'm not sure its ever worked anywhere.

bringing in peak n offpeak rates would be better imho.