ENERGY PRICES Power increase will not be forgotten
SO, power prices are to jump in Tasmania by almost 12 per cent at the end of the month.
This is the worst news at the worst possible time and I would think that the entire community would struggle to accept any justification for such a rise, which is more than twice the current level of inflation.
There is only one possible solution to this situation and that is to remove Tasmania from the National Energy Market with immediate effect and then reduce this ridiculous price increase to a level that reflects any increase to the cost of power generation in Tasmania.
Governments have fallen over much less than this outrageous increase, which would not be forgotten if implemented.
HIKE JUST THE START
Kevin Hirst Kingston
SO Tasmanians wake to the chilling news that power prices are to rise by 12 per cent.
It is difficult to believe that we are not being conned by regulators and the Tasmanian government about the true situation of the electricity market in the state.
I have long believed that Tasmania would be much better off if Basslink had never been built and the proposed Marinus Link should be stopped now.
The Tasmanian Labor Party are for once on the right track when they advocate decoupling Tasmania from the national grid.
Tasmania’s magnificent hydro-electric system was built decades ago, well ahead of its time and fully carbon-neutral.
We are now constantly fed the furphy that renewable energy in the form of wind turbines and pumped hydro will bring cheaper power and that Tas can become the “Battery of the NaOur tion”. It would be interesting to know how much money has already been spent on Tasmanian wind turbines and what return we are getting from them.
We hear that Bell Bay is going to be a hub of green hydrogen production, a process that will require massive use of both electricity and water.
Who will pay? Unfortunately, I feel like the 12 per cent power price increase will just be the start if the Tasmanian government and Aurora continue down their current path.
BETTER CALL SAUL
Mark Ranson West Hobart
I HAVE talked with a number of Tasmanians who believe that we should work towards making Tasmania energy self-sufficient, and that joining the national energy grid with Basslink was not a good idea.
Like them I hope we do some serious rethinking and abandon any thought of a second cable.
Saul Griffith, a noted Australian thinker in this field, has been strongly recommending an electrified Australia.
He believes that we should focus much more on the household as a place to generate and store energy. I am aware of households who have the necessary skill and resources who are already almost energy self-sufficient using solar panels and electric cars to generate and store the energy they need.
But many Tasmanian households do not have these resources and they need help to do this.
More than any other state or territory, given our resources of hydro, wind and sun, Tasmania is ideally suited to become self-sufficient using green energy.
If I was the premier I would immediately approach Saul Griffiths and encourage him to assist Tasmania to become a great example of an electrified, environmentally friendly community.
only problem would be to deal with the floods of people who would probably choose to live in such a place. Penny Andersen South Hobart
GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME
THIS is the energy recession we just had to have. Most likely it will trigger an economic one as well.
But we can’t complain. We were advised the overriding responsibility of our electricity market was and always will be to ensure security of supply. Nothing, including carbon reductions, can ever be allowed to compromise this.
But somehow something did, which allowed uncertain electricity generations to take priority over reliable ones by manipulating the spot-price mechanism in the wholesale electricity market. Voila! This is how to create a perfect storm.
Most of the manipulation centred around having a low duration period for spot-price contracts.
This gave a big advantage to intermittent generators, all of which are incapable of signing off on contracts greater than durations of just a very few hours. I guess it seemed a good idea at the time — just like the one during the Gordon Dam crisis.
Gordon Thurlow Launceston
JUST A SMOKESCREEN
WHY is it not patently evident that a national energy market in Australia just does not work?
Why aren’t we asking why on Earth we stupidly sold our energy production? All the talk about markets and regulation is a smokescreen for an ideological obsession. So why is Labor fully immersed in this monumental failure of public policy?
Brian Austen South Hobart