Too much wind is really too much for a wind generator, and when the sun went down there was no solar power at all

Victoria’s government is blaming extreme weather – not themselves – for this latest crisis. But let’s look at how this really played out.

Victorians were warned they’d face summer blackouts as politicians mad with global warming schemes destroyed their electricity system.

And now it’s here. We’ve seen 500,000 people lose electricity on a stinker of a day, with many thousands unlikely to get power back on for days more.

Stand by for more such blackouts, and not just in Victoria, the Australian Energy Market Operator warned last August.

High winds brought down transmission wires.

Victoria’s government is blaming “catastrophic extreme weather” – not themselves – knowing that’s code for global warming. And that’s what these saints are trying to stop, so who could blame them? But hang on.

True, high winds did bring down transmission wires, causing four generators at Loy Yang to trip, and load-shedding to start.

We’re yet to understand exactly why all this played out.

But some things we do know.

About 500,000 Victorians lost power. Picture: AGL

First, Tuesday’s winds reached 130 km/h. Victoria has had higher winds in 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Winds at Mt Hotham reached 198 km/h in 2005.

Second, Victoria has closed so much of its coal generation it had to scramble madly on Tuesday for gas back-up and supplies from interstate to replace the downed generators, paying a colossal $16,600 per megawatt-hour for about two hours before settling down to about $67/MWh. Third, the wind and solar power we’ve spent billions of dollars on subsidising didn’t save us. And, when the sun went down there was no solar power at all.

Victoria has closed so much of its coal generation that it had to scramble madly on Tuesday for gas backup and supplies from interstate. Picture: Getty

Fourth, under the Albanese government’s green dream, we must get 82 per cent of our electricity from renewables in just six years from now, and build 10,000km of transmission wires to join up all these new wind and solar plants. That’s more towers to blow over, and wires to clash and cause fires. Finally, have pity on the new homeowners who heeded the Victorian government’s campaign to ban gas connections. If you had gas, like me, you could at least cook and boil water when the power went out. Or fire up a generator.

Anthony Albanese’s green dream is to get 82 per cent of our electricity from renewables in just six years from now. Picture: Julian Andrews

But under the government’s mad plans, once the power goes out it’s all out – the aircon, the heating, the cooking, the lights.

And as we’ve now seen, Victoria just doesn’t have enough peaking or baseload power such as gas to keep the system stable or restart it quickly. Paul Broad, the former Snowy Hydro boss, blames the government’s mad “ideological” opposition to gas, and warns there will be more and regular brownouts.

Sweat on that while the power is out.

Originally published as Too much wind is really too much for a wind generator, and when the sun went down there was no solar power at all