Powerful arguments

DEBATE on a coal- fired power station for North Queensland is still brewing with some notable people having their say.

One a doctor in environment ( Bulletin, November 11) has said it is bad for people’s health and lists seven diseases within 100km of the plant.

We also have the CEO of Australian Power Project ( Bulletin, November 10) raising the virtues of a HELE power station. A reporter for the Bulletin ( Bulletin, November 11) lists 10 solar plants under construction and 10 more proposed in the Townsville region.

Mike Brunker, ( Bulletin, November 11) a candidate for State Parliament who has worked in coalfields and as mayor of Bowen, says we do not need more power but cheaper power, and should he get into Parliament, he should put an end to using its profits and claiming subsidies and making people pay for it.

North Queensland has been asking for a power station for years because the closest was near Rockhampton but my guess Brisbane always planned to stop the North having one in case we got a separate state and they wanted to stop it.

For the majority of the solar stations listed, added to the cost of each one must be any upgrades to powerlines’ capacity to carry the load and major changes in the grid substations and control back to operations officers in control stations.

One opinion given in a Public Policy Paper 6/ 2016 September 2016 for Energy Policy Institute of Australia by Professor Simon Bartlett, who had 40 years’ experience in power generation and transmission, should be a must read.

He claims when renewable penetrations exceed about 10 per cent, they can cause pressure cooker effect on the system and 40 per cent should not be exceeded without great danger to the system. He claims the system should have spinning generation to take up shock in the system such as line and substation as well as power station faults.

I would hope we end up with sanity prevailing, so that we do not end up like South Australia, and engineers with experience in generation and transmission are forefront in decisions and not uneducated politicians or greenies subjecting the people with blackouts.

My opinion is install a HELE power station in Pentland well away from the Great Barrier Reef and use a maximum of 40 per cent renewables and extend the grid to Hughenden to pick up the western power stations. GARTH HARRIGAN,

Aitkenvale.