Deceptive spin in The Adelaide Advertiser, about electricity problems
| Dennis Matthews, 12 Dec 16, Bright spark Rex Jory has oh-so-cleverly concluded that SA has an electricity supply problem (The Advertiser, 12/12/16). But, like his fellow journalists at sister newspapers The Australian and Sunday Mail, Jory has put 2 and 2 together and got – zilch? Funny about that.
Did the closure of Port Augusta cause the problem? Sorry, in every 2016 electricity crisis there was plenty of surplus generation capacity. Did wind farms cause the problem? Sorry, it was electricity transmission that caused both the SA blackout and the sudden loss of supply from Victoria. Was it reliance on supply from Victoria? Maybe, but then the National Electricity Market (NEM) and inter-connectors between states were set up to smooth out supply-demand problems not exacerbate them. Fix electricity transmission, idle power station, and NEM problems and bingo! Jory and his fellow travelers will have to find some other excuse for pushing their outdated agenda.
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The Editor
The Advertiser
The performance of the electricity transmission system has been less than impressive in 2016.
In late September, transmission towers in SA collapsed leading to a sequence of events which culminated in the abrupt shut down of the SA–Victoria Heywood interconnector, plunging SA into a state–wide blackout.
Two months later, a transmission line fault in Victoria caused the Heywood interconnector to again abruptly shut down resulting in loss of power to many homes and businesses in SA.
I find it, therefore, a little surprising that the lone SA electricity transmission provider should, in an advertorial-style article, unashamedly call for more of the same (The Advertiser 14/12/16).
Without interconnectors there is no electricity market, hence it is not surprising that the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) also wants more interconnectors.
Vested interests want to expand their business but is this really in the interests of SA? It seems to me there is a case for more self-sufficiency and that the future is not more but less interconnection.
Dennis Matthews
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