At the end of the 1970s, as Britain endured its bleak ‘Winter of Discontent’, Labour PM Jim Callaghan wondered what all the fuss was about. Crisis? What Crisis? In the words of a famous newspaper headline, this was Sunny Jim’s attitude.
Sunny Jim was a moping miserablist compared to Australia’s Clown World duo of Albo and Boofhead.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has defended an increasingly decentralised power grid against calls for more “always on power” like nuclear, despite four million Australian households facing the threat of restrictions on their rooftop solar supplies to stop the power grid being flooded with excess electricity.
The Winter of Discontent was characterised by harsh power rationing caused by shortages of coal due to strikes. Australia is spiralling into a long, hot Summer of Discontent, with power blackouts looming more and more likely due to a shortage of coal-fired power caused by the lunatic obsession with ‘Net Zero’.
As Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton put cost of living and energy bills at the centre of their informal pre-election summer blitz of key seats, the power grid operator has warned too much solar generation risks pushing local distribution lines to breaking point. With rooftop solar at its peak supplying up to half the needs of the electricity system, a new “emergency backstop” mechanism will be introduced to temporarily solve the problem of too much solar overwhelming the grid.
For years, engineers have warned that the wild intermittency of solar and wind is devastating to grids built to run on steady, reliable supply. It’s bad enough that ‘renewables’ can barely meet demand most of the time – it’s even worse when they do work and overload the grid with a massive spike of supply. Shortly before its state-wide blackout in 2016, for instance, South Australia was forced to shut down wind turbines. The resultant surge in demand for coal-fired power from Victoria blew up the interconnector.
The Energy Minister said the solar move was part of the journey to a modern power grid with solar, wind and batteries set to replace coal generation as Australia’s main form of electricity.
A “modern grid” seems to be green-speak for ‘one that doesn’t work when you need it most’. Even so, Bowen has insanely put the generation wild horses before the grid cart.
Would you let this bloke even run a chook raffle?
With mounting pressure on the Coalition to release its broader energy policy and nuclear costings, Mr Dutton will launch an attack through social media attempting to discredit the Prime Minister’s trustworthiness. “Labor promised you a $275 cut to your electricity bills 97 times before the last election. But what has he delivered? Electricity prices are now up to $1000 more than what Labor promised,” Mr Dutton said.
Australians struggling to pay power bills on top of record-high mortgages and soaring grocery costs would agree.
A record number of people are struggling to pay their energy bills, the Australian Energy Regulator has said in a report that highlights the toll of Australia’s cost of living crisis that is sapping support for the federal Labor government […]
The AER said more than 130,000 households are on payment plans now, up from 95,634 last year.
The regulator also said those entering so-called hardship payment plans – offered by retailers to those unable to keep up on bills, are doing so with higher levels of debt. The AER said the debt for people on payment plans is $1476.
Worryingly, the AER said only 26 per cent of households on these electricity payment plans completed the scheme and no longer owed anything on their bills.
The left-engineered crisis of the Winter of Discontent led directly to the election of Margaret Thatcher, with her raft of conservative political and economic policies soon dubbed ‘Thatcherism’.
Is Australia lucky enough to have a modern-day Thatcher ready to take the reins?
