Thread: Big storm and no power in SA

It will indeed be interesting.

My line of work is linked to funding of new / existing utility scale generation. We are seeing new renewable that is economic at prices lower than new coal / gas requires (taking into account cost of build, funding etc.).

Add in political uncertainty and it means the only new coal / gas that may get done will probably need to be Govt funded or guaranteed, not private sector. Not likely to help in the short term.

Originally Posted by Eevo

lets hope its not required

Why? Reliability comes first, cost spread over the whole summer won't amount to much.

Originally Posted by bee utey

Why? Reliability comes first, cost spread over the whole summer won't amount to much.

Agreed - they should come in very handy as they can be on line very quickly if needed. They will certainly assist in supporting the reliability of the grid over there. Cost of running them if needed at peak times or if something goes wrong with the system is minimal compared to the cost of an outage and also their installation cost.

Also, like any infrastructure of this kind, using it is the best way of keeping it reliable.

I've got a 1960s, 50KW 6cyl Dorman set (ex DCA) on a 5T Bedford 4WD (grossly overloaded) , just in case .... it is about an hour away. It still has all the backup/switch gear on it so when mains fail, it auto starts and switches over supply. It gets run occasionally, mainly to support 3ph welder. Local electrical mob knocked back the loan in 2003 (ACT bushfires) and someone there got carpeted over that as they were desperate for larger units!
Otherwise I rely on my camping Yahama 1200w unit!

Originally Posted by rrturboD

I've got a 1960s, 50KW 6cyl Dorman set (ex DCA) on a 5T Bedford 4WD (grossly overloaded) , just in case .... it is about an hour away. It still has all the backup/switch gear on it so when mains fail, it auto starts and switches over supply. It gets run occasionally, mainly to support 3ph welder. Local electrical mob knocked back the loan in 2003 (ACT bushfires) and someone there got carpeted over that as they were desperate for larger units!
Otherwise I rely on my camping Yahama 1200w unit!

So it should only take a couple of days to get the Bedford into town then ( having driven a TK bedford)
Regards,
tote

Victorians better hope the wind keeps blowing in SA so it can send cheap power down the interconnector or Melbourne might have blackouts this summer.

Other way around Mick - SA rarely sends power this was when demand is high and that will continue even with Hazelwood gone. It's the other way around - and knowing a bit about how the interconnector is operated and plans for it this Summer, they aren't expecting any heading towards Vic - that's for sure. It's more likely to be used to load shed SA if Vic runs short.

SA doesn't make a surplus of electricity from wind - but it can hold its own on a good day and minimise their gas usage and the interconnector, which is pretty cool - I'd like to see more states be able to do this.

SA has been consistently exporting power to Victoria since the big gas generators negotiated a new contract for gas prices, back in about July. No idea how long this will last once the wind drops. Daily and weekly interconnector flows available here:

NEM: V-SA Interconnector Report