I read WA need 1000km of High Voltage transmission lines.

Today its 10,000! And multiple reasons why that will not happen! Reading "

Cement maker stops work as electricity prices surge

"

included "The construction materials maker said its electricity bills had inflated over the past year by 54 per cent, adding millions of dollars to its manufacturing costs, with prices now peaking at levels that force it to shutter its production at 300 plants around the country for up to half an hour a day to constrain costs."

"“We’ve worked out economically, it’s actually better to have thousands of people waiting idle for the prices to come down, then actually do the work. That’s a real issue we are facing every single day on 300 manufacturing sites across the country,” he said. Staff were working overtime and night shifts to manage energy costs and get supply of building materials to customers, he said."

The real squeeze line was

"Clare Savage, chair of the Australian Energy Regulator, said the greatest challenge the country faces in its bid to keep on track is the clash between affordability and the scale and pace of the energy transition. “If we’re to electrify the economy, we need to double the size of the system we have today. If we want to have an export industry that’s hydrogen-based, we need to have a system that’s four times larger than the one we have today.”

“Everyone in the world is trying to do this at the same time,” Savage said, which was feeding supply chain pressures, labour, critical minerals and other metals shortages."

SMR nuclear put at existing coal plants avoids the need to add 10,000 km of transmission lines! Gives work to the staff about to lose their jobs and provide 24/7 power with out the massively over overoptimistic dreams of Grid scale batteries !

Or we could be stupid of course