Sparks could fly between state ministers and the Australian federal government over renewable energy at an emergency meeting of the COAG Energy Council today.
South Australians could be forgiven for thinking everyone is talking about them of late – because they are.
It’s probably been quite some time since the state has had this much national attention. Unfortunately some of it has been a case of schadenfreude; particularly from those who have a bee in their bonnet about renewable energy.
The trigger for the statewide blackout last week was a mid-latitude cyclonic storm event over a large area, the intensity of which South Australia rarely sees. Heck, there were even tornadoes.
It got very windy, very rainy, very lightningy and bad stuff happened all over the place; including the loss of three major 275 kV transmission lines north of Adelaide in quick succession.
Contrary to some rumours, those transmission towers were not ravaged by rabid self-aware wind turbines mutated by the lightning that were using the storm as a cover for their carnage.
“The sequence of events was weather-inflicted damage on transmission lines which then had a knock-on effect on generation which then had a knock-on effect on interconnectors and from there, separation from Victoria and black-out in South Australia,” writes Bruce Mountain; summarising part of an initial AEMO report (PDF) into the incident.
There are still many details among all that which aren’t clear, and won’t be for some time.
Regardless, there’s been storm-force bluster sweeping through the media since the event that could rival the wind strength in SA last week. Some statements have been so shocking, they could have given the 80,000 lightning strikes the state endured during the event a run for their money.
An emergency COAG Energy Council meeting to be held today in Melbourne will discuss what went wrong last week; which may be somewhat difficult to do without all the correct information.
The COAG Energy Council will also debate uniform renewable energy targets throughout the nation and consider a review of the national power market.
Most ministers are expected to dig their heels in on state targets if the Federal Government won’t lift the national Renewable Energy Target (RET).
Australian/State Renewable Energy Targets
- Federal : ~20 – 23.5% by 2020 (depending on who you ask – the large scale target has been set at 33,000 GWh in 2020)
- Queensland : 50% by 2030
- New South Wales: 20% by 2020-21
- ACT: 100% by 2020
- Victoria : 40% by 2025
- Tasmania : None set, but has ~87% renewables (mainly hydro and wind)
- South Australia : 50% by 2025
- Western Australia : No state target set
- Northern Territory : Proposed 50% by 2030
“There’s been an absence of policy at the Federal level so that’s why the States, including Queensland, had to step up and take the initiative,” said Queensland Energy Minister Mark Bailey.
“While the Turnbull Government and the LNP continue to undermine renewable energy, the States will keep doing the heavy lifting to address climate change through emission reducing renewable energy.”
SA’s Climate Change Minister has a similar message.
“At the last Federal Election, Malcolm Turnbull praised South Australia for its leadership role in renewable energy – now it’s time for the Federal Government to step up,” said Minister Ian Hunter.
Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio also seems committed to maintaining that state’s target.
“If governments don’t set targets you’ve got nothing to aim for. No, we’ll keep our target and we’ll work towards it.”
Even the ACT Liberal Opposition is reportedly sticking by its recently-found guns on the Territory’s 100 per cent renewables target. There’s little doubt those same guns would need be pried out of the ACT Government’s cold, dead hands should it come to that.
However, Federal Minister for the Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg believes “clean energy needs co-operation, not windy promises” and maintains the states need to put the brakes on what he says are unrealistically high renewable energy targets.
So, the scene is set for things to get quite heated in the meeting today. It’s a shame that energy can’t be tapped and converted to electricity as there would be a lot of it (and it’s renewable).
