Antinuclear

Dramatic fall in greenhouse gases, as Australians, especially Victorians. use less coal-fired power

Yallourn was operating at just 56 per cent last month even after it announced it was mothballing one of its four units.

Emissions sink as consumers turn off coal, SMH,   Peter Hannam, December 17, 2012 Carbon economy editor Weak demand for electricity across eastern mainland states has sparked a “dramatic fall” in greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s power stations, the latest review of data by consultants Pitt & Sherry has found.

While demand for base-load electricity from black coal-fired power stations has been in retreat for about three years, the decline has extended in recent months to two of Victoria’s emissions-intensive brown coal-fired plants, Hazelwood and Yallourn. Changes in demand of electricity on this scale are unprecedented in the entire 120-year history of the electricity supply industry in Australia

Hazelwood, one of the country’s oldest and dirtiest power plants, was
operating at only 67 per cent capacity in November, down from the
mid-80 per cent range in May and June, Hugh Saddler, principal
consultant in the climate change business unit of Pitt & Sherry, said.
The data, analysed from half-hourly reports to the Australian Energy
Market Operator, also show Yallourn was operating at just 56 per cent last month even after it announced it was mothballing one of its four units. That ratio is down from 90 per cent capacity use in December
last year, Dr Saddler said.

In NSW, power stations were operating in the 60-70 per cent capacity
range, with Eraring down to 44 per cent and Bayswater 64 per cent last
month.
The slide in coal-fired power generation means “it should really be
quite easy” for the government to meet its goal of cutting Australia’s
greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 from 2000 levels, he
said.
Total emissions from energy use for the year ended September 30 were 2
million tonnes of carbon dioxide lower than in the year ended July
2012. In November alone, CO2 emissions from energy dropped another
600,000 tonnes based on a rolling 12-month data series.

Pitt & Sherry analysis shows demand for electricity fell 2.5 per cent
in year to November, compared with a year earlier, led by a decline of
more than 5 per cent for NSW. South Australia and Tasmania posted
falls of about 3 per cent, with Queensland and Victoria registering
small retreats in demand.
Higher electricity prices appear to be an important prompt to the demand drop.
“The price is a signal to consumers to use less electricity,”
http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/emissions-sink-as-consumers-turn-off-coal-20121217-2bj3t.html

December 18, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, energy