Tasmania is a little Island state off the southern point of Australia, was largely self sufficient in energy, and was connected to the mainland via "Basslink", a high voltage undersea cable some decades ago, allowing flow both to and from the mainland.
They have massive hydro resources (could have had more, but certain groups in the past stopped certain dams and installations being installed).
The ability to move energy North and South has lead to the hydros being part of the national grid, and able to profit on high prices, and back off overnight when the prices are low. The market has been recovering that last 18-24 months, so there's been some money in it.
The bulk of the other thermal sources of power in the state have been closed down or mothballed.
Is the storage level of the dams over recent history, consider it stored electricity. They were critically low in 2015, and were importing 700MW from the mainland for most of the end of 2015 (that's about half a brown coal fired power station).
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-15/co...orecast/6942438
Problem is that Murphy likes to wade into situations like this, and take a groin kick. Just before Christmas the cable broke. And it's going to take months to get the gear here to lift it and find it with the fault approximately 50km offshore.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-23/ba...lanning/7050714
So running out of water, and reliant on the shunned brown coal, they are now in a position where they had to wait nearly a month to get mothballed gas plants back online.
But I DID find this laughable...
Quote:
The Tasmanian Greens have called on the State Government to focus on renewable energy.
Greens energy spokesperson Rosalie Woodruff told 936 ABC Hobart that the current system was unsustainable.
"The point is that we don't have any policy or any plan in place to invest in renewable energy," she said.
"And that's the only real back up we can have that is going to make sure that this situation doesn't happen in the future."
They have massive hydro resources (could have had more, but certain groups in the past stopped certain dams and installations being installed).
The ability to move energy North and South has lead to the hydros being part of the national grid, and able to profit on high prices, and back off overnight when the prices are low. The market has been recovering that last 18-24 months, so there's been some money in it.
The bulk of the other thermal sources of power in the state have been closed down or mothballed.
Is the storage level of the dams over recent history, consider it stored electricity. They were critically low in 2015, and were importing 700MW from the mainland for most of the end of 2015 (that's about half a brown coal fired power station).
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-15/co...orecast/6942438
Problem is that Murphy likes to wade into situations like this, and take a groin kick. Just before Christmas the cable broke. And it's going to take months to get the gear here to lift it and find it with the fault approximately 50km offshore.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-23/ba...lanning/7050714
So running out of water, and reliant on the shunned brown coal, they are now in a position where they had to wait nearly a month to get mothballed gas plants back online.
But I DID find this laughable...
Quote:
The Tasmanian Greens have called on the State Government to focus on renewable energy.
Greens energy spokesperson Rosalie Woodruff told 936 ABC Hobart that the current system was unsustainable.
"The point is that we don't have any policy or any plan in place to invest in renewable energy," she said.
"And that's the only real back up we can have that is going to make sure that this situation doesn't happen in the future."