" We have already reached peak renewables on the current grid, with the links between Victoria and NSW and Victoria and Tasmania running at their limits for 42 per cent and 57 per cent of the time from January to March. Curtailment of renewable energy generation has increased by 40 per cent in the past year.
Coal generators are falling like skittles. NSW’s largest plant, Eraring, is scheduled to close in two years and Westerman warned that almost two-thirds of coal generation could be gone by the end of the decade, which might lead to a few issues on a winter Sunday morning like at the weekend. At 6.45am, the east and west coast grids combined were running on 60 per cent coal, with Queensland the highest at 86 per cent.
The expansion in the grid, which might have allowed Sunday’s glut of southern wind to flow north, is being delayed at every turn as planners discover (to their evident surprise) that rural communities aren’t exactly clamouring for steel towers rising higher than the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Westerman’s appeal for urgent investment in firming technology, such as pumped hydro, flexible gas generation and battery storage, suggests the nay-sayers’ concerns about weather-dependent technology weren’t that stupid after all."
COE Price at posting:
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