Well I guess they fixed the issue and quickly restarted it back to full output. On hot days, back pressure from the condensor somewhat decreases efficiency. but nowhere near to the extent that ambient temperature impacts gas turbines, Never mind, Jay and Tom's diesel-swilling emergency gas turbines will get a good workout, thanks to "generosity" of Tax payers. It is not just SA residents who cop this rot, since SA receives a lot more tax revenue than it raises.
When the wind doesn't blow (yesterday was good example) and you haven't yet built out the hundreds of $Bn of investment needed to replace fossil with dispatchable storage, there is really no point to be made by your "snippet".
Solar PV production has already curtailed during the late afternoon (when peak demand occurs) due to angle of the sun, so not much use to anyone except the army of installers who sprang up to take advantage of the subsidies. Cost of the small scale generation certificates SGC's just gets added onto the price of power, and adversely impacts tenants and low income people who cannot install PV on their roof.
Similar issue with MW scale large solar arrays where virtue signalling is primary reason to buy, and again the Certificates generated just get added to the bill of all users.
Today there is less than 150MW of spare capacity in Victoria, so a trip becomes a big deal
When we let the market forces unleashed by the RET close Hazelwood and Northern PS we created a monster. Price spikes are capped to $14000/MW-h so likely not enough to stimulate additional investment in fossil capacity.
The Solar Thermal plant is at Port Augusta is a costly alternative to dispatchable solar, and will be a harbinger of future R&D. How much of the IP is retained in Australia remains to be seen. I suspect we are just generously contributing to someone else's business balance sheet, again in the name of virtue signalling so our delegates to Climate talk fests like COP21 can feel good basking in the lime-light social functions.
If people really knew what went on at these events they would be mortified.
