New Dark Age: East Coast of Australia faces the blackouts of the 1940s
IN Federal Parliament Malcolm Turnbull keeps on blaming the South Australia Labor government for the blackout that occurred on September 28, 2016, and the Victoria Labor government for the closure of the 1600MW Hazelworth Power Station.
The final technical report by Australia Energy Market Operator said the blackout in SA was caused by two tornados blowing down two high voltage transmission towers resulting in the interconnector between Victoria and SA tripping.
In 1997 the South Australia Olsen Liberal Government sold the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA) to a Chinese company, Cheng Kong.
Before the sale ETSA had planned to build an interconnector between NSW and SA. But Cheng Kong canned the project as it was not in its charter to improve the reliability of ETSA network.
If this interconnector was installed SA blackouts might not have occurred.
In 1921 the Victorian National Coalition Government created the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV). So for the next 70 years residents of Victoria had cheap, reliable power to fuel a growing state.
In 1992 Jeff Kennett sold the SECV to various overseas companies declaring it was a basket case despite making a profit of $207 million in 1991. These private companies were not interested in improving the reliability of the system by replacing inefficient and old plant, but focused making a profit for its shareholders.
This was highlighted when the French company Engine closed the 1600 MW Hazelworth Power Station on March 31, 2017, instead of the planned date of 2020.
The company declared it was not making sufficient profit. The closure of Hazelworth meant that Victoria lost 25 per cent of its base load power.
Daily blackouts were a common event in NSW in the 1940s. So in 1950 the then NSW Labor government took over the four privately owned power companies and formed the Electricity Commission of NSW (ECNSW). The ECNSW replaced the old city power stations e.g. Bunnerong and Pyrmont and replaced them with efficient power stations close to coal fields, such as Liddell and Eraring.
The result of state governments taking over the running of the power Industry resulted in prices dropping from 25cent/kwhr in 1950 to eight cents /kwhr in1990. Since the privatisation of the power industry, prices have gone from eight cents/kwhr to 39 cents/ kwhr and reduced reliability.
This year NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian sold the six power stations with a total output power of 10,000MW for $1.6 billion dollars to Chinese companies.
The Chinese company, China Light and Power, that brought 1000MW Wallerawang Power Station in 2013, closed it 2014 as it was not making a profit. Even though the government had spent millions of dollars replacing the generator transformers.
In Sydney, Ausgrid, which supplies power to Sydney’s householders was sold in 2016 for $16 billion to Australian Fund managers.
This year the company turned the recently completed $70 million apprentice training school into a meter store room and are not going to take on apprentices in 2018.
By privatising the NSW power industry, the O’farrell, Baird and Berejiklian governments have destroyed a reliable and profitable service, just as they have wrecked TAFE by substituting it with private providers.
This is dramatically shown by the sacking of 5000 TAFE teachers and the proposed mass sell-off of 27 TAFE colleges. Consequently TAFE enrolments are down by 11.2 per cent to 404,456 in the year 16 July, 2017. No wonder our young people are leaving TAFE colleges in droves and it’s no wonder – The Liberal and National just don’t believe in TAFE
Governments like to keep voters in the dark and now that darkness is at serious risk of plunging into regular blackouts in our biggest states. Mr Turnbull should wakeup and switch on his “brights” and hopefully our lights in the process, otherwise he will be facing a power failure all of his own.
I was devastated to fine that under the stewardship of O’farrell/ Baird / Berejiklian Liberal Governments have had the biggest fire sale in Australia history by selling six NSW power stations for just over $ 1.56 billion dollars.
It costs taxpayers over $3 billion dollars to build Eraring Power Station. On top of that they sold Transgrid (500Kv and 330Kv high voltage network) for $10.3 billion and Ausgrid (which supplies power to 1.7 million homes and business Sydney) for $16 billion.
By privatising the NSW power industry, the O’farrell, Baird and Berejiklian governments have destroyed a reliable and profitable service, just as they have wrecked TAFE by substituting it with private providers.