Australia’s source of power faces real risk

DAustralia is at risk. We are constructing an electricity system vulnerable to future threats that our country has not fully internalised.

Our security posture for supply needs to be robust and defendable for the future.

The extension of electricity supply across our future East Coast Grid lacks resilience and robustness, with economic and security implications .

The design principles being applied, and the failure to test alternative options include a reduced capacity to properly defend our nation and the likely loss of energy security for the Eastern Grid.

Terrorists and adversaries will have greatly enhanced opportunities for electric power disruptions and consequential loss of freshwater supply, sewage treatment, urban and regional transport, secure hospital and emergency services power and failed industries.

This submission is to request that you empower the Chief of Defence, General Angus Campbell, to establish an Electricity Supply Security Taskforce to review AEMO’S plan to provide reliable electricity with security of supply.

Massive grid extension, the predominance of solar and wind generation, and the prospects of extensive use of batteries has significant known risks.

The resilience and protection of critical infrastructure in a time of conflict will be much diminished.

Early robust consideration of the defence ramifications which will eventuate from a faltering or failed grid on the scale proposed would be prudent.

The current large investments, recently announced, exacerbate rather than address the lack of predictable, dispatchable energy generation.

This is a matter of engineering, not economics. Overbuild of weather and daylight-dependent power generation make our electricity transmission weak, brittle, vulnerable and insecure in every sense.

My concerns, shared by many experts, in respect of Australia’s energy security vulnerabilities, have only intensified.

We can achieve reliability, robustness and resilience, with nuclear power, hydro where practical, and up to 20-40 per cent of dilute, non-dispatchable sources.

To my mind this is essential and urgent.