Governments concealing the truth about power

Spin doctors are desperately trying to conceal the truth about the damage governments have done.

The expected 2018 Victorian and NSW blackouts and brownouts have started. Last March I discovered blackouts were likely because NSW, Victoria and South Australian state governments had “vandalised our total energy system”.

In addition, Victoria, which has huge gas reserves, has been the key contributor to skyrocketing gas and power prices by legislatively blockading the development of its gas.

Never before in our recent history have we seen on this scale governmental incompetence and arrogant disregard for the well being of communities in the quest for green votes.

But there is relief in sight. This week’s Oakley Greenwood Report on Australian gas energy says that gas prices have started to decline as a better and more integrated market is developed. If Victoria allowed its gas to be developed the energy scene in Australia would be transformed, as would the outlook for the nation.

But that’s not much consolation for those in vast areas of rural NSW and Victoria plus suburban Melbourne and small areas of South Australia who suffered blackouts or reduced power on Sunday night. It’s true part of the outages were caused by fuses, but the outages were too widespread. It’s another smokescreen.

If similar conditions are repeated on weekdays and/or extend over several days the blackouts will be devastating as a result of the political vandalism. Government spin doctors and others are desperately trying to conceal the truth about the damage governments headed by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (plus her predecessors Mike Baird and Barry O’Farrell) and South Australia’s Jay Weatherill have caused.

South Australia suffered its blackouts last year so it was appropriate that this week’s blackouts were worst in Victoria — just as the residents of the gas-rich state discovered they suffered the biggest wholesale gas price rises in the country.

Federal Energy minister Josh Frydenberg declared: “Victorian families and businesses are now paying the highest prices in the country because of Daniel Andrews’ mindless bans on conventional and unconventional gas, which is locking up 40 years’ worth of domestic gas supply”.

Taking its concealment one step further the Victorian government last year appointed a $42 million committee which this month declared the state short of onshore gas, but it did not look at the vast reserves of lignite gas that don’t require fracking (because development was banned) nor the reserves of Lakes Oil in Gippsland and the Otway (because Lakes Oil are suing the government). Unbelievable.

But they did reveal a fascinating diagram, which showed that Lakes Oil’s Otway areas are linked to those in South Australia. A few days after the report Beach discovered a major find in South Australia six kilometres from the Victorian border.

We are looking at concealment of information from Victorians on a scale rarely seen in any developed country.

In fairness to Daniel Andrews the bans on the development of Victoria’s huge reserves started with the previous Coalition, but after my articles, which started last February, the current opposition leader Matthew Guy changed his stance.

On power shortages and blackouts it’s important that all Australians understand how the politicians conducted their vandalisation program.

First I emphasise there is nothing wrong with wanting to increase the proportion of energy you generate from renewables and setting targets. But you must do it properly.

Instead the Victorian, NSW and South Australian governments “plonked” wind and solar farms around their states and declared that it was cheaper than conventional power. Lots of green votes followed.

What they concealed from the public was the fact that renewables need back up for times when the wind does not blow or, as happened on Sunday, the sun is not shining when demand peaks late afternoon or at night. Part of the of the cost of renewables is back up such gas power, hydro or huge batteries. You also need to alter the grid to cater for the fact that the power is coming from different places.

If those essential elements were included, then the costs of renewables would be much higher and there would be a political backlash.

But it gets worse. When the wind blows and the sun shines there are rushes of cheap electricity, which damages the economics of coal production. If you are also investing in gas hydro, or some other back up generators you can shut down coal. But the NSW and Victorian governments shut down vital coal fired stations without replacement plants.

Thankfully Josh Frydenberg has a plan that will stop the mindless construction of renewables without backup and start the process of rectifying the mistakes. But it requires COAG approval, which is not easy particularly as South Australia still has not fully understood the damage they have created.

While gas can come from Queensland, NSW is blocking the Narrabri gas development and Victoria continues to ban development of its gas. So back up can’t be put in place, although the costly Snowy hydro will help. Victoria is going for diesel and on Sunday those diesel generators belched out fumes and pollution to avoid a full-scale crisis.

Victoria has become the diesel state. The greens turn a blind eye.

In a strange way we need more blackouts to teach the community that their leaders have been misleading them.