NT electricity system ‘running on luck’ as government fails to plan for the future: Alan Langworthy

THE recent widespread blackout in the Top End should be a ‘warning bell’ that the network is becoming increasingly vulnerable, the solar tsar who wrote the Territory’s Roadmap to Renewables has said.

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THE recent widespread blackout in the Top End should be a “warning bell” that the network is becoming increasingly vulnerable, the solar tsar who wrote the Territory’s Roadmap to Renewables has said.

Still bereft of a government-led comprehensive plan on what needs to be done to ensure the Territory’s electricity network works efficiently and cost-effectively in the years to come, Alan Langworthy says the system is now “running on luck”.

Mr Langworthy was hand-picked by the government in 2017 to plot the way to their target of 50 per cent renewables by 2030.

Channel Island Power Station. Picture: Che Chorley

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He said the government’s initiatives, including on electricity market reforms, without an integrated system plan, was akin to having an emergency department without a hospital.

“We are running on luck … with no integrated system plan, the time is going to come when we have a complete system black,” Mr Langworthy said.

Drawing up a comprehensive plan of what the NT’s electricity grid should look like moving forward and then progressing infrastructure upgrades to make it fit for purpose was among recommendations in the Roadmap to Renewables report three years ago.

Northern Territory government renewables tsar Alan Langworthy, pictured in Darwin.

The Utilities Commission, the NT’s authority on power, has made references to the issue as well, urging the Territory government in at least two reports this year to immediately begin the process of finding solutions for new power generation or risk the Darwin-Katherine grid becoming significantly less reliable in six years as ageing generators on Channel Island are retired.

Mr Langworthy said the need for a comprehensive plan had become even more critical since the Roadmap to Renewables report first suggested it.

Essential Services and Renewable Energy Minister Eva Lawler, asked when work on this plan would begin, or if it would be done at all, instead pointed to the government’s renewables target and the NT Electricity Market Priority Reform Program currently underway.

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One of the main goals of the reform program is to promote efficiency and competition in the electricity supply sector and, with the presence of competition, co-ordinating the dispatch of electricity.

Draft policies of parts of the program were meant to be published in October but have been delayed.

A spokeswoman for the Industry, Tourism and Trade department said it would be released in December.