The future of energy generation and storage

Smurf1976 said:

It's pretty much the same everywhere. Governments split up the industry and created a "market" that does not naturally exist, adding new costs which the various companies "compete" to reduce but never back to what they were originally.

The outcome is the same in most places. Prices are higher in 'real terms' today than before all the reforms started. The old state-run monopolies did have their inefficiencies but were cheaper than what we've got today.

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Northumbrian Water reveals Microbial Electrolysis Cell trials

Northumbrian Water and Newcastle University have carried out the first trial of a hydrogen Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC) on real sewage at a wastewater treatment works on Tyneside.

Speaking recently at the British Science Festival in Newcastle, experts from Northumbrian Water and Newcastle University revealed how they have harnessed the power of the billions of naturally-occurring microbes in sewage. The process has shown that not only can wastewater treatment plants be completely self-powered and the treatment process improved, they can also be used to produce significant quantities of hydrogen gas, which could be collected and used to power electric vehicles, for instance.

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“What’s really clever about this system is that it works on raw sewage at ambient temperature. Most anaerobic digesters require a high-energy, concentrated food source and heat to work properly which means the water has to be removed first and this is an energy-expensive process.

“What we have developed is a system that feeds on the waste as it arrives at the plant – the whole lot goes in and the microbes do all the hard work.”

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Smurf1976 said:

Cloud seeding is in full swing and working well thus far. It does need suitable conditions but it's a well proven process that does work.

Whilst it only adds modestly to actual rainfall, all that comes in the form of heavier and longer falls and without increased evaporation losses so the benefit in terms of inflows to storages is larger than the actual % increase in rainfall.

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Value Collector said:

I wonder if seeding in one area is robbing rainfall from another, I also wonder whether the chemicals used could cause problems to ecosystems if they are used to much, saying that though it's an emergency in tassy at the moment, but I just hope there is no long term impact of it becomes an annual thing that gets over used.

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sptrawler said:

That's exactly right, in W.A the price has doubled since the industry was opened up to competition, yet the cost to generate hasn't moved much at all.

Now we have a situation where State owned generators are being shut down, to try and force the private suppliers to run their plant.

Increasing the price doesn't seem to have encouraged competition, it has resulted in more installed generation, that gets paid capacity payments to sit there and do nothing.

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sptrawler said:

That's exactly right, in W.A the price has doubled since the industry was opened up to competition, yet the cost to generate hasn't moved much at all.

Now we have a situation where State owned generators are being shut down, to try and force the private suppliers to run their plant.

Increasing the price doesn't seem to have encouraged competition, it has resulted in more installed generation, that gets paid capacity payments to sit there and do nothing.

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SirRumpole said:

So you are agreeing that public utility assets should not be privatised ?

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nioka said:

All gets down to selling off the farm to pay off the bankcard.

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Ijustnewit said:

Seems poor old Hydro Tas can't take a trick

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Smurf1976 said:

I think we've upset the gods or something. Pretty much everything has gone wrong lately....

As for that issue, well I do think it's a tad unfair. I mean NO electricity retailer can guarantee where your power comes from and Momentum has always stated on the website and elsewhere that the Smile Power product is not an accredited Green Power product and that Momentum offers a separate product for those who want to purchase accredited Green Power.

Will AGL (Australian Gas Light Company) be fined because most of the power they're selling isn't actually produced from gas?

Will Origin be fined because the fossil fuels they're burning aren't actually "made fresh daily" as their advertising claims but are in fact millions of years old?

Will Bunnings or anyone else who claims "lowest prices" be fined if I find something in their shop that isn't actually at the lowest price available and someone else has it cheaper? Definitely misleading to say you've got the "lowest prices" unless you actually do have the lowest prices, that seems pretty clear to me.

Will the ACCC be fined for botching the gas roll-out in Tasmania? Said that the electricity industry couldn't build it, that would be uncompetitive to have such a monopoly over both electricity and gas, so the end result is that two thirds of it wasn't built at all and that means even less competition.

Hmm.... I think we've just upset someone.

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• Firstly they raise the daily supply charge (I think mine went up 40% in 6 months of moving here)
• Then a 6.767 cent daily 'solar meter charge'
• inverters are also capped at 90% capacity output

Energex to ban battery storage, air-con and appliances from off-peak​

Queensland government owned network operator Energex has taken the extraordinary step of banning battery storage, air conditioning and appliances such as washing machines and clothes dryers from off peak loads in a move that has stunned the solar and storage industry.

The move was announced without explanation in an email to electricians and rooftop solar installers. It seemed hastily cobbled together, it couldn’t spell “tariff” (see below), and energy experts are struggling to see the logic in it.
Indeed, sources told RenewEconomy that the response was so savage that Energex had advised that the rule changes would be withdrawn by the end of the day, and only re-introduced after proper consultation with the industry. Indeed, that was confirmed by a new email from Energex that it was only a proposal, and apologies for the confusion.

As it is, the industry is perplexed. They say the proposed changes brings to an end decades of efforts of trying to shift consumption away from peak demand.

And they pointed out that it made no sense to exclude battery storage from off-peak loads, but at the same time allow electric vehicle batteries – as the load looks exactly the same to the network. And why allow another form of storage – hot water – and not batteries?

Some suggested it may be a sign of panic in the network industry in the face of the biggest changes to energy demand in a century, or just a ruse to increase peak load and give the network an excuse to push the case for yet more poles and wires.

“I have been in this business for 35 years and I am at a complete loss to explain why Energex has done this,” said Mike Swanston, a consumer advocate who was a long-serving senior executive at Energex. “I cannot understand why they would make this ruling, and why there was no consultation with industry to change a decades-old practice.”

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