The blackouts during Australia's heatwave didn't happen by accident
Australia broke yet another heatwave record this week while thousands of people suffered from electricity blackouts
by Alexander White, The Guardian, January 17, 2014
Parts of Melbourne were left without power as temperatures reach over 40 degrees Celsius in Melbourne, Australia. Photograph: Craig Sillitoe/Getty Images
Australia is experiencing the most extreme heatwave since, well, the last one in 2013 and 2009.
While the sunburned country is used to hot weather, our infrastructure was not built to cope with several days of above 40 °C temperatures. Now Victoria has now seen 4 consecutive days above 41 °C, breaking records that have existed since 1855.
Earth wind map shows Australia as hottest place on planet #climate #heatwave #connectthedots pic.twitter.com/AJGCoitnVc
— Alexander White (@alexanderwhite) January 17, 2014
In 2009, the heatwave preceded Black Saturday, one of the most devastating bush fires in recent times. The human cost of the 2009 heatwave was more than 374 deaths, in addition to the 173 people who died in the fires.
These heatwaves aren't just inconvenient for tennis fans or commuters. They're deadly.
Energy demand in Victoria has declined over the past five years by around 3% per year, despite quickly growing population. This is largely due to increases in energy efficiency, decline in energy intensive manufacturing and the massive uptake of household photovoltaic solar systems (around 3 GW nationally is installed).
While there were heatwaves across most of Australia for the past fortnight, the heatwave this week finally hit the south-eastern seaboard, and Melbourne where I live.
In nearby South Australia, the state capital Adelaide became the hottest city on earth, with temperatures in Roseworthy exceeding 46 °C. (That's over 114.8 °F if you don't follow Celsius.)
Bushfires are raging across south-east Australia, with over 100 blazes burning in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. There are more than 60 burning in Victoria.
Under these conditions, we saw train and tram tracks buckle. Melbourne ground to a halt, when the public transport providers, Metro and Yarra Trams advised commuters to leave work early to avoid massive delays and service cancellations.
It became so hot that the Australian Open tennis competition had play stopped after players collapsed and hallucinated cartoon characters.
Climate change is causing heatwaves in Australia to become more frequent, last longer and to be hotter, according to a Climate Council report:
"As greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, more heat is trapped in the lower atmosphere," the report states. "This increases the likelihood that hot weather will occur and that heatwaves will become longer and more intense.
These heatwaves aren't just inconvenient for tennis fans or commuters. They're deadly.
Emergency services, including paramedics and firefighters have been mobilised in large numbers to respond to the increase in heat-related injuries. Heart attacks surged 300% during the heatwave and authorities expect an increase of 50% in mortalities caused by the extreme heat, mainly the elderly, infirm and children.
Also widely reported in Melbourne are localised, staged blackouts.
On Wednesday, the Victorian premier Denis Napthine, who has introduced an effective ban on the construction of wind turbines, talked about the need to "reduce the supply to some households".
He's talking about cutting the electricity to homes, during the hottest part of the day.
"The Government is insisting that priority is given to electricity supplies for hospitals, nursing homes emergency services, public transport and major infrastructure," he said in a radio interview, and he also noted that essential services "will be exempt" from power cuts.
The black outs were exacerbated by repair delays at one of Victoria's major power stations and problems with the Basslink power cable from Tasmania.
It is important for people to understand several important facts.
Firstly, peak demand in 2014 was less than during the 2009 record heat wave. According to Roger Dargavel, senior energy analyst from Melbourne University's energy institute:
peak demand on Tuesday (with a maximum temperature in Melbourne of 42.8 degrees) and Wednesday (41.7 degrees) was only a touch over 10 GW, well under the 2009 record.
Energy demand in Victoria has declined over the past five years by around 3% per year, despite quickly growing population. This is largely due to increases in energy efficiency, decline in energy intensive manufacturing and the massive uptake of household photovoltaic solar systems (around 3 GW nationally is installed).
In fact, according to the Clean Energy Council, without rooftop solar "acting to reduce the demand from large-scale power stations, it is very likely that Victoria would have set a new record for power use". So we can thank renewables that there weren't blackouts due to lack of supply. (Despite this, Tony Abbott has cut funding for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and premier Napthine has halted wind turbine approvals.)
Secondly, energy supply is not a natural phenomenon. It is not like water that flows downhill. The electricity supply is something that is determined by people. At some point, a person decides to turn off the electricity for a certain area. (This obviously excepts blackouts due to disasters.) In the case of the blackouts being referred to by premier Napthine, the decision makers are the energy distribution companies.
Thirdly, the energy market in Australia and Victoria is national, and largely privatised. In Victoria, the energy assets were sold off in the 1990s (along with a host of other essential services) by the conservative premier Jeff Kennett. The argument used to justify the privatisation was that it would result in lower prices.
Energy prices, as well as supply, are determined by "market forces". That is, the privately owned power companies sell electricity to the highest bidder. What's more, privatisation introduced the profit-motive, so that electricity companies have an incentive to increase their prices. In the three years before 2013, electricity prices rose by 66% or $680 per year, only around $54 of which can be attributed to the carbon price during 2013 (the first full year of its operation).
Additionally, Australia has a national energy market. This means that the grid connects between states, so when there is an excess of supply in one state, it can be sent to another state; and when there is an increase in demand in a state, supply can be sent from a neighbouring state.
Today, Fairfax reported that several large commercial users of electricity voluntarily reduced their energy consumption. This was due to price surges on the wholesale market. The wholesale market is regulated by the Australian Energy Market Operator, which operates the national electricity trading market. It is a corporation jointly owned by Australians state and federal governments, and industry.
The blackout during the heatwave in Melbourne was caused because someone in a private company decided to cut the power to everyday peoples' homes.
The decision-makers in these companies are profit driven. They are selling energy in a market. And these companies sell to the highest bidders. The fact that several bulk buyers reduced their energy consumption demonstrates this.
According to the ABC, prices increased in Victoria energy retailers are paying around $750 per megawatt hour and as high as $1,800/MWh, up from $48 on Monday and an average of around $60. Prices once reached $12,900/MWh, so, as Roger Dargaville noted "the system is under stress but a long way from cracking."
The State Government can effectively exempt essential services like the water pumps, hospitals, and public transport by guaranteeing that they will pay the price, however high.
Householders however, cannot. So power companies prioritise industrial energy users over people. This means cutting power to homes and sending it to industry.
The point of this post is blog that while the extremes of heat that we are experiencing may be a natural phenomenon, the consequences are caused by humans.
When people have their power supplies cut and their health is impacted, when infrastructure cannot cope and people are left stranded, and when companies and governments continue to pump billions of tonnes of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, it is because of someone's decision.
And if you don't care about the people, at least think of the cute koalas.
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