The wind and solar ‘transition’ has nothing to do with providing reliable and affordable power. It’s a wealth transfer from power consumers and taxpayers to rent seekers – driven by ideologues and enabled by politicos who wouldn’t know a kilowatt from their elbow.
Australia’s Eastern Grid is a heartbeat away from total collapse. Once upon a time, the Eastern Grid (which covers Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia) delivered cheap and reliable power from coal-fired power plants situated in every one of those states, save Tasmania – which largely runs on its own hydro power.
20 years ago, that all changed with the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Target, which was (and is) all about subsidising large-scale wind and solar.
Because wind and solar can’t be delivered on demand, the National Electricity Market (NEM) was destroyed from within to allow power with no commercial value to be traded within that market. Takeaway the renewable energy certificates (which constitute the subsidy) and there would be no market for intermittent wind and solar. Period.
As The Australian’s Economics Editor, Judith Sloan explains below, the NEM is in a state of self-inflicted chaos, with no remedy in sight. And, as always, it’s power consumers and taxpayers who will be left carrying the can.
Why the National Electricity Market is on its last legs
The Australian
Judith Sloan
26 March 2024
The national electricity market is on its last legs.
What started as a market-based dispatch and trading scheme in the late 1990s to connect the electricity-generating capacity of all the states bar Western Australia – the Northern Territory also is not part of the NEM – has descended into a chaotic combination of federal and state rules, regulations and subsidy arrangements. To call it a market is a stretch, with indications that self-interested states are pulling up their drawbridges.
Real News Australia 