PM’s wake-up call on energy security requires urgent action

Rarely has Turnbull made more sense than when prioritising energy security. Now he must get quickly to work.

Damages at Bylth, 140km north of Adelaide after it was hit by tornados. Picture: Kelly Barnes/The Australian.

At last some leadership from Malcolm Turnbull on a most serious issue — energy security.

“Energy security should always be the key priority. If you are stuck in an elevator, if the lights won’t go on, if your fridge is thawing out … because the power is gone, you are not going to be concerned about the particular source of that power. Whether it is hydro, wind, solar, coal or gas, you want to know that the energy is secure.’’

Rarely has the PM made more sense.

Sure he has copped a blast from Bill Shorten, the Greens, and the renewables’ cheer squad.

They have falsely accused him of directly linking the blackout to South Australia’s unprecedented — in the Australian context at any rate — 40 per cent power capacity from wind and solar.

While he did have a go at ‘em all for the “ideological” renewable energy targets found in the Labor states, his real message was that the blackout was a “wake-up call” on the need for a deep dive in to the nation’s energy security.

What happened in South Australia on Wednesday afternoon demands nothing less. And because of the particular grid integration challenges renewables bring because of their intermittent nature, they necessarily have to be part of the deep dive.

It is clear that it was the cascading effect of a couple of dozen high-voltage transmission power lines being knocked out in wild weather — and a lightning strike on a power station — that plunged South Australia in to darkness.

The wild weather is said to have been a one in 50-year event. So a starting point for the deep dive will be why the now privately operated transmission system in the state is not built to one in 100-year standards, or at least able to withstand wind attacks that other states have endured without drama.

But that is only a small question. Bigger supply security issues are at play, and yes, some of them do and will go to what is needed to ensuring the stability and connectivity of the broader national energy market by incorporating the rise of renewables and the retreat of coal.

All that was bubbling along anyway ahead of Wednesday’s blackout in South Australia. Now it will be brought to boil as an issue. There is nothing more the public hates than the loss of power, except perhaps petrol rationing.

Big business don’t like being let down on the power front either. Apart from the revenue and profit losses from forced shutdowns, blackouts can cause havoc and, potentially at least, disasters.

That is particularly so in the minerals processing business where massive molten baths in steel mills and base metals smelters can solidify in hurry when the power goes off. Jack hammers are not the preferred method of metal recovery from such operations.

And that is what Wednesday’s stoppage has done at Nyrstar’s lead smelter in Port Pirie. And it looks to have been a close call at Arrium’s Whyalla steel mill, and a prevention challenge for BHP Billiton at Olympic Dam.

Tonight was still unclear if that troika of heavyweight mineral processing operations were still dealing with power shortages. But they face days if not weeks of slog getting back to steady state operations.

They are big names to add to the public outcry over something that should have just not happened. And it can be assumed they will want some action to flow from the PM’s “wake-up call.’’

The defenders and promoters of renewables should have nothing to fear from that. If anything, it could finally deliver the sort of long-term planning — and subsequent expenditure commitments — required to deliver energy security with all its new bells and whistles.