Tag Archives: South Australia

Want Time Freezing or Boiling In The Dark: Keep Backing Wind & Solar

From STOP THESE THINGS

South Africa is on track for a record year of power cuts. Photographer: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg

Pinning your power needs to intermittent wind and solar power comes with a grab bag of consequences. Not least, blackouts whenever surging demand coincides with calm weather and/or sunset.

Whether it’s wind and solar-obsessed South Australia or Germany, the results are inevitable.

The cancer that began in South Australia – the only state in Australia to ever suffer a statewide blackout (that lasted for days in places) and a string of others – has spread across the Eastern Grid to other states following SA’s wind and solar-obsessed lead.

The team from Jo Nova outlines a very dark future for Australian power consumers. Following which, we turn to an extract from a documentary put together by Deutsche Welle, that heralds an equally dismal future for Germans.

Panic now: The Australian national grid manager admits blackouts are coming
Jo Nova Blog
Jo Nova
2 September 2023

We’re on the precipice of a radical experiment with a national electricity grid.

The AEMO (manager of the Australian grid) has finally released the major report on problems coming in the next ten years on our national grid, and it’s worse than they thought even six months ago. They euphemistically refer to the coming “reliability gaps”. They could have said “blackouts” instead, but a gap in reliability sounds so much nicer.

Bizarrely, the lead graph of the 175 page AEMO report goes right off the scale, mysteriously peaking in the unknown and invisible real estate off the top of the chart.  And they’re not projecting troubles fifty years from now. Those cropped peaks of invisible pain hit from 2027.

And even the pain we can see is apparently quite bad. Two states are already likely to breach “the interim reliability measure” in this coming summer.  Ominously, just one day after releasing the report, the AEMO is calling for tenders for “reliability reserves” in South Australia and Victoria. Apparently, they want offers of industries ready to shut down who aren’t already on the list, and they want spare generation too — get this — even asking for “small onsite generators”. Does that sound bad to you? It sounds bad to me.

As the calm analyst Paul McArdle says:

“Based on current trajectory, we’re in for a world of pain ahead.  …the AEMO projections are looking pretty dire.”

Consider figure 1:  A decade of blackouts coming

Have you ever seen a graph like this that hides the peaks? In the “central scenario” of the cropped graph — “only” four states of Australia go off the charts. Imagine what the bad scenario looks like…

AEMO, ESOO, 2023. Figure 1 shows the reliability forecast and indicative reliability forecast for the 2023 ESOO Central scenario. This forecast considers only the sub-set of known developments that have demonstrated sufficient commitment towards commissioning in the NEM (those developments classified as committed or anticipated), including announced retirements, and allows for project delivery schedules that may be slower than proponents have advised based on observed development, approval and commissioning requirements.

Given that South Australia flew in diesel jet engines for back up generation at one point (General Electric aero-derivative turbines)  — perhaps we can ask Qatar Airlines if they can plug some planes straight into our grid? (The government won’t let them fly in more passengers, in case it screws up Qantas profits, but that means they must have a few  planes they can spare.)

A leap to Figure 43 suggests those hidden peaks of Figure 1 might be quite high in NSW and Victoria. Figure 43 shows the same “Central Scenario” as Figure 1 — this time as dotted lines — and we are allowed to see a bit more of the graph. The y axis is the same Expected Unserved Energy (%) this time reaching up to 0.007%. But the NSW (blue) and Victorian (grey) lines are doing the Moonshot thing in 2027. They’re headed to infinity or some number the AEMO didn’t want to graph.

The solid lines in Figure 43 are the slightly better scenarios that include contributions from CER or “Consumer Energy Resources” (that’s you!). This is what the future looks like with more help from things like solar panels on rooftops, home batteries, and Electric Vehicles. It’s also the best we can do with DSP assistance — which means Demand Side Participation — those people who participate by not demanding electricity. In normal English we would call them the customers who are paid to stay away or something.

Ten different ways to go without electricity
The AEMO doesn’t use the word blackout, but it has a dozen flavours of blackouts-by-another-name, many of them voluntary or subsidized and somewhat prearranged. It looks so much better on paper to say “DSP” but it means someone, somewhere going without electricity when they would otherwise have used it. DSP gets 146 mentions in the AEMO report, giving us some idea on how mini-blackouts are now an essential part of managing a very sick grid.

At a minimum DSP may just be an inconvenience — people have to program their washing machine and pool filter to run at lunchtime, which sounds fine until you have only one sunny day that week and you have six loads of washing. In a rich world without “reliability gaps” you would just run it, conveniently, from 5 to 10 pm the night before.

DSP is code for people willing (or dragged), in some sense, to have a voluntary mini-blackout — and the report notes the major factor driving an increase in DSP uptake is because electricity is now more expensive (what a great thing?). The AEMO notes: “These higher prices have led to more benefits to customers participating in DSP schemes or responding directly to market signals”. Table 5 lists the Negawatts of voluntary outages when prices rise to $1,000, $5,000 and $7,500 per megawatt hour…

Now that Alice lives in Downunder-land — more expensive electricity means customers get more “benefits” when they don’t use it. See how this works? Only the wealthy will have the convenience of electricity whenever they want it. The underclass will be cooking on barbeques, and getting up earlier each day to program the washing machine and set up the timers for the scooters.

Ominously the AEMO projects a lot more voluntary blackouts:

Drowning in complexity
The message in 42 tables and 100 figures is unspoken, but obvious — the Australian grid is drowning in complexity, there are so many moving unpredictable parts. The report models the various possibilities of low rain, low wind, low stocks of fossil fuels, droughts, heatwaves, and unexpected outages. They try to model some combinations and permutations of multiple troubles occurring simultaneously. Whether we get and can afford electricity now depends on ocean currents in the Pacific that no one can predict. We live in the land of drought and flooding rains, and we’re hoping the weather will be nice.

The AEMO brightly says that it can be managed, see Figure 2, if we just build 10,000 kilometers of high transmission lines through farmland and forests, and then finish all the wind farms and solar magic panels, along with lots more voluntary blackouts, “consumer investments” (home batteries) and dispatchable capacity (whatever could that be?)

The last thought is the predictions for South Australia:
There is an 84% chance under a “neutral/unknown climate outlook” that South Australia will have no blackouts this summer. But there is a 16% chance that some will occur, and these are most likely to be 1-3 hours long affecting 5 to 30% of the region (which means “of the state”, presumably). But there is a tiny chance they might lose half the state for as much as 16 hours (spread over four different nights, say). I bet they are praying they don’t get a hot windless week?

But even if they don’t have one blackout, more of people’s lives will be wasted paying electricity bills and reading articles on how to save electricity, how to reprogram the pool filter, how to charge the kids scooter, how to put out fires started by the scooter…

Electricity predictions, South Australia unreliability, blackouts.

If that’s a neutral/unknown outlook, what does it look like for a long hot summer?

Finally, for the data nerds: The text that officially goes with the graph above:

Figure 22 shows a bubble plot of the distribution of USE outcomes that are forecast in South Australia for the 2023-24 summer, under a neutral/unknown climate outlook. It includes the total outage duration and average depth in each simulation

  • The remainder of simulations, which are collectively 16% probable, are represented by the other bubbles on
    the chart. Should USE occur, it is most likely to occur for between one hour and three hours and be of an
    average USE magnitude equivalent to between 5% and 30% of average regional demand. Within each event,
    larger magnitudes of USE than the average may occur during the duration of the event.
  • There is a very low probability for USE as deep as 55% of average regional demand, or as long as 16 total
    hours, which may occur over multiple individual USE events, for example four different evenings. These
    outcomes each represent the result of a single annual simulation, with an estimated probability of
    approximately 1 in 4,000.

REFERENCES

The AEMO 2023 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) report, a 10-year reliability outlook that signals development needs for each state in the National Electricity Market (NEM). August 31, 2023

AEMO — Interim Reliability Reserves Invitation to Tender  2023/24, Sept 1, 2023
Jo Nova Blog

Meanwhile in Germany, a surprisingly balanced documentary from DW (Deutsche Welle) Germany’s left leaning public broadcaster has been released. It looks at the proposed outcomes of country-wide blackouts.

Power failure in Germany – Horror scenario or genuine possibility?
YouTube
Deutsche Welle
2 September 2023

Germany wants out of fossil fuels: no coal, no gas, no nuclear power plants. Instead, the country wants to commit fully to renewables. But does this bring with it the threat of a major power blackout?

Germany is gradually realizing where the sticking points are. Take grid security: This is much easier to guarantee in a power network with just a few dozen large power stations than in a decentralized network with multiple small-scale electricity producers such as rooftops with solar panels or wind turbines. “It’s now a matter of having to intervene several times almost every day to guarantee grid security,” says the spokesperson for one major network operator. If grid security can no longer be maintained, the threat of a nationwide blackout suddenly becomes very real.

Another problem is reliability. Because the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, there might be too little power available on particular days and at particular times of the year. This also raises the possibility of unforeseen power failures. One potential remedy could be power storage.

There are many different ideas about how to securely store energy in order to bridge power gaps in the renewables’ supply: pumped-storage power plants, hydrogen storage, gigantic batteries. But, if these technologies exist at all, they do so only on a very small scale: Current storage capacity in Germany is 40 gigawatt hours – enough to supply the country for up to 60 minutes. And if there’s still no wind and the sun still isn’t shining? Does politics have a plan to provide Germany with sufficient energy to avert a potential blackout? These are some of the key questions explored by this documentary. The lack of comment on Germany’s crazy closure of its nuclear plants seems a glaring omission.

Power failure in Germany – Horror scenario or genuine possibility? | DW Documentary

Fishermen Unite to Prevent Offshore Wind Industry Wrecking Marine Ecosystems

From STOP THESE THINGS

Fishermen, whose livelihoods depend on the sea, have turned on the offshore wind industry with a vengeance. Along America’s Atlantic coast trawlermen and lobster fishers are as one in their hatred of the offshore wind power scam. Not least because of the damage that it is doing to the fishing grounds which they have sought to preserve and protect over generations. And not without cause.

Serious studies have shown that offshore wind farms are doing irreparable harm to crabs and lobsters.

One scientific study found that the electromagnetic fields generated by created by the cables that connect offshore wind turbines attract crabs that then remain in place, fixated on the magnetic field, effectively immobilising them.

Another study relating to their cousins, the lobster has shown that the same electromagnetic fields deform their young to the point where they are incapable of ordinary movement ie, they become crustacean cripples.

South Australia’s hard-working abalone divers and lobster fishermen are alive to the threat, reacting with the same hostility expressed by their Atlantic cousins to a plan to spear hundreds of these giants right into the heart of their peaceful and productive fishing community.

Offshore wind farm battle looms over SA coastline
In Daily
Belinda Willis
11 August 2023

Abalone diver and Limestone Coast local Chris Carrison spends so much time in coastal waters targeted for offshore wind farms that he thinks it likely a wound would see him bleed seawater rather than blood.

Port MacDonnell abalone diver and environmentalist Chris Carrison fears offshore wind farms will impact waters off the Limestone Coast.

His love of the ocean is a driving factor behind Carrison joining forces with local pollies, rock lobster and recreation fishers as they took their fight to stop offshore wind turbines with 100 metre blade spans from impacting waters off the Port MacDonnell coastline to Canberra this week.

The delegation from the state’s South East told Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen they fear new ocean zoning rules out for consultation will unlock the region for wind farms that could impact their fragile coastline, recreational fishing and seafood industries.

Southern Coast Ocean Care chair Carrison told Bowen that one global wind company, Blue Float, is already circling to install 77 turbines “almost three times higher than our highest local mountain” between Port MacDonnell in South Australia and Portland in Victoria.

Blue Float announced its plan for a Southern Winds Offshore Wind Project last year, saying it would use bottom-fixed turbine technology for the project 10km to 30km offshore, with turbines mounted on a structure fixed into the seabed.

“These turbines will be up to 270m high and will dominate the coastline,” Carrison told InDaily, adding that the group is determined to stop the rezoning that will allow wind farms 10km from the coastline “in its infancy”.

“Personally, I just find it an affront, my job is as an abalone diver, I think if you stabbed me salt water would come out instead of blood,” Carrison said.

“To me it’s devastating to think about going out there into the water and seeing mechanical objects three times higher than our local mountain Mount Schank.”

Carrison was with the Limestone Coast delegation led by SA federal Liberal MP Tony Pasin to ensure his concerns are heard in the current consultation on the new wind farm zoning that ends on August 31.

Bowen has described the region as an ideal location for offshore electricity generation that could enable up to 14GW of offshore wind energy – the equivalent of powering up to 8.4 million homes.

But Carrison’s environmental group thinks Bowen needs to be told “in no uncertain terms, that our region does not want offshore wind turbines threatening our industry and environment”.

Others in the delegation included South Australian Rock Lobster Advisory Council chief executive Nathan Kimber, who said the plan would affect Port MacDonnell’s fleet of 45 fishing vessels and four lobster processors and exporters.

“This offshore wind zone and the activities it supports will impact on the management of the Southern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery,” Kimber said.

He listed concerns about habitat being destroyed, the detrimental environmental impact of erecting turbines and exclusion zones surrounding the farms, along with sound and vibration affecting rock lobster life cycles.

“(And) there is nothing in this proposed zone for South Australia or the Limestone Coast communities,” Kimber said, adding that the fishery generates around $200m in economic activity and supports close to 1200 jobs.

“There will be no net energy benefit – all projects proposed under the zone will come ashore at Portland and connect through the Heywood inter-connector to the Victorian grid.”

Rec Fish SA Executive Officer Asher Dezsery and Game Fishing Association of Australia Ian Bladin also raised concerns during the trip to Canberra about Bowen announcing on June 28 that consultation is underway for proposed wind farm zone changes applying to 5100 square kilometres offshore.

Grant Council covers Port MacDonnell and Mayor Kylie Boston flew to Canberra with the delegation, saying it was vital to ensure the future of 60 per cent of 8000 residents in the district working in the rock lobster, agriculture or forestry industries were protected.

“(We explain to locals) that these wind turbines will be larger than Port Schank, which is an extinct volcano between Mount Gambier and Port MacDonnell that is a hundred metres high,” she said.

Boston was forced to stand outside the packed information session at Port MacDonnell Football Club as locals spilled out of the rooms on August 3.

“We are worried about the local rock lobster industry but also the coastline, the reef environment and kelp bed environment and the Bonney upswelling phenomenon,” she said.

The region’s Bonney Upwelling only happens in 12 places in the world, in which nutrients are driven to warmer, higher water providing a vital food source to marine creatures. Locals fear it could be disrupted by offshore wind turbine developments.

And this Bonney Upwelling, combined with an elaborate system of limestone reefs and kelp beds, support a thriving population of Southern Rock Lobster and fish within the proposed zone.

“We don’t know how the numerous fish, plant and bird species will co-exist,” Boston said.
In Daily

Vale Bill Quinn: Australia’s Most Fearless Anti-Wind Power Fraud Warrior

From STOP THESE THINGS

William Laurence Quinn passed on this week, leaving a legacy to all those aiming to protect their communities from the great wind power fraud. Bill left us last Tuesday, 15 August 2023.

He was admitted to the Burra Hospital in the Mid-North of South Australia, where he was born on 31 May 1956 and died 67 years later, after a lengthy struggle with a degenerative neural condition.

Starting in the late 1970s, Bill operated a diesel mechanic business from his family property near the township of Mt Bryan, and later set up a transport business, carting grain and general freight. With his wife Jenny, he had three daughters, Debra, Julie and Linda and a son, Mick who works in the family business.

A true local character, he will be sorely missed by his family, 10 grandchildren and the community in which he lived and worked all his life.

In 2009, AGL started operating its Hallett 2 wind farm situated on the rolling hills to the west of the town of Mt Bryan, a couple of kilometres to the south-east of Bill’s home.

Bill was not only angry about the pointless destruction of the visual landscape, he took issue with the thumping, grinding cacophony these things generate, particularly at night when there is little or no background noise to cover it up.

Suitably incensed, when Bill learnt of plans by AGL to replicate the Hallett 2 atrocity with 38 turbines to be ground into the steep ridges of Mount Bryan (the mountain), north-east of his home, he went on the warpath, joining local farmers, Malcolm and Lynette Kelly and Dawn Booth in a David and Goliath battle of the centuries.

Barrister Peter Quinn with Appellants Bill Quinn, Lyn Kelly, Malcolm Kelly and Dawn Booth at the ‘Save Mt Bryan Fighting Fund’ meeting on 19 February 2010

Bill and his little group appealed the decision of the Goyder (Burra) Council to approve what AGL called ‘Hallett 3’, and what locals regarded as an environmental disaster in the making.

Mount Bryan (at 936m) towers over the rangelands to its east and is the pinnacle of the picturesque Range Country that separates the higher rainfall and productive cropping land to the west from the low rainfall grazing lands to the east and north of the Hallett/Mount Bryan Valley.

To erect the 38 turbines would have involved AGL’s contractors levelling a dozen or more, very steep ridgelines, turning the whole range into something resembling a quarry or mine, exposing the hillsides to landslips and serious water erosion.

The neighbouring town of Hallett, a peaceful community of 100 or so on the Barrier Highway would have faced the incessant, soul-destroying noise generated by these monsters. Bill and his fellow pro-community advocates, were having none of it.

Bill enlisted support from his brother Peter, a Barrister based in Adelaide and the battle began.

AGL threw absolutely everything at the case, which was heard in July 2010 in the Environment, Resources and Development Court. Bill lost the first round (see the decision here) but, true to character, he was determined to fight on.

Bill engaged Adelaide’s leading planning barrister, Brian Hayes QC to lead the charge in the Full Court of the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the ERD Court decision.

The Full Court allowed the appeal (see the decision here) and sent the matter back for a rehearing by the ERD Court, on the basis that AGL had withheld critical evidence from Bill and the ERD Court regarding the noise generated by its existing turbines at Hallett 2.

At the same time Bill’s appeal case was running through the Supreme Court, AGL had been forced to stop operating its turbines at Hallet 2 because the noise generated included ‘tonality’ and thereby exceeded the EPA’s noise limits. The same turbines were proposed to be used by AGL at Hallett 3.

When the matter returned to the ERD Court, Bill argued that if the turbines at Hallett 2 couldn’t comply with the noise limits, then the court should not approve Hallett 3 because the same turbines would never be able to comply with the same limits.

AGL had spent a small fortune modifying the turbines at Hallett 2, in an effort to overcome the tonality problem. However, Bill’s acoustic expert had gathered noise data showing that, even after the modifications, the tonal problem remained and could be proved if AGL handed over the wind speed data from the MET masts at Hallett 2.

When Bill pressed his application for the production of that data, AGL decided to cut and run; it promptly withdrew its application for planning approval of Hallett 3. Had Bill proved the tonal problem still existed at Hallett 2, AGL would have been forced to shut down those turbines (again and perhaps permanently) for breaching the EPA noise limit.

And that was the end of the threat to Mount Bryan, which remains wind turbine-free, thanks to Bill and his tenacity and courage.

The fact that one of the most beautiful parts of South Australia avoided desecration by the wind industry would be legacy enough. However, Bill used his experience fighting AGL to encourage others to take on Goliath.

Dick Paltridge, a dairy farmer from SA’s south-east, followed Bill’s lead in taking on Spanish outfit, Acciona over a 46 turbine proposal that would have destroyed the bucolic and productive farmland south of Mount Gambier.

Bill and Dick became co-warriors, supporting and encouraging each other throughout. Dick Paltridge defeated Acciona in June 2011 (decision available here). Dick passed on in March 2021, but his patch of paradise remains turbine free.

Evidently filled with empathy and compassion for his rural brethren, Bill travelled far and wide and communicated regularly with every community facing the threat of having industrial wind turbines speared into their heartland.

His relationship with real farmers and pro-community groups in Victoria, NSW and even as far away as Far North Queensland became legend. He was renowned for his comments on the electronic pages of The Australian and every other platform where he could spell out how rotten and corrupt the wind industry is. In that respect, he pulled no punches, as with this example of support to community defenders in Hawkesdale, Victoria:

Bill Quinn donated $100
I feel very deeply for this small rural community who have the threat of this idiotic, pointless conglomeration of useless, noisy, oil-leaking, subsidy-sucking wind turbines being thrust upon them.

I travelled from the Mid-North of SA to attend a meeting at Hawksdale a couple of years ago and witnessed a hall, packed to the brim with locals who pointed out, in no uncertain terms to Turnbull’s best mate and Wind farm Commissioner, Andrew Dyer, that any more wind turbines were definitely not wanted in that beautiful part of Victoria.

Back in 2009, a group of concerned locals, led by myself, appealed the decision by Goyder Council to permit Hallett Stage 3 wind farm that was to be built by Australia’s Greatest Liars. With the help of a very competent barrister and a huge fund-raising effort by locals (including people from interstate), I appealed the ERD court decision in the Supreme Court of SA and won.  AGL requested that the approval for Hallett 3 be removed and then merrily went over to Macarthur in Victoria, to spear 140 Vesta 112s into productive farming land. The nightmare, for those surrounded by these things, still continues.  The Moyne Shire Council has sat idly by whilst this non-compliant wind farm continues to receive $130 million per year in RECs, that it was not entitled to. Instead, Moyne Shire Council need to listen to those who pay your wages, not the jumped-up, lying, wind weasels that seem to have a hold over them.

Best of luck Hawksdale.

Regards

Bill Quinn (the last successful wind weasel slayer standing in SA)

Bill gave support and encouragement, where there was none. By saving Mount Bryan he gave hope to others, when there was none. He put a fire under the wind industry which will never go out.

His community, and many others, can be thankful for his courage and determination. He will be sorely missed. May he rest in peace.

Vale, William Laurence Quinn 31 May 1956 – 15 August 2023.

Thanks to Bill Quinn Mount Bryan SA remains turbine-free forever.

Power Supplier Sued For Gaming Market Around Wind & Solar Output Collapses

From STOP THESE THINGS

Intermittent wind and solar deliver guaranteed grid chaos and rocketing power prices. Every single country that’s chased the wind and solar pipe dream has watched their power prices go through the roof, with no exception.

STT has been banging on about this since December 2012. So, don’t say we didn’t warn you. The graphic above from Dr Michael Crawford spells it out: add massively subsidised and chaotically intermittent wind and solar to your power grid and watch power prices spiral out of control.

As STT has pointed out a number of times, power market gaming – of the kind that made Enron infamous – is a natural consequence of a very natural set of phenomena: wind and solar power output collapses that occur whenever the sun sets and/or calm weather sets in:

Wind Power Output Collapses Send Power Prices into Orbit: The World’s Biggest Joke Just Got Serious

and

South Australia’s Unbridled Wind Power Insanity: Wind Power Collapses see Spot Prices Rocket from $70 to $13,800 per MWh and The Cost of Wind Power: Killing Jobs

and

Crushing Families – SA’s Biggest Smelter Under Threat with 750 Jobs at Risk

Back in July 2018, we produced this detailed wrap-up on how wind and solar output collapses allow generators to game the power market, resulting in skyrocketing wholesale power prices, all passed on to you:

Generators Game Power Market Around Wind & Solar Output Collapses: Spot Prices Routinely Hitting $14,000/MWh

Now a group of their victims has taken one of the main perpetrators, AGL to court seeking compensation for the economic damage caused by the market manipulation made possible by wind and solar output collapses.

Australian Energy Giant Sued for Allegedly Manipulating Electricity Prices
The Epoch Times
Alfred Bui
20 June 2023

One of Australia’s top energy companies has been sued for allegedly using bids to manipulate power prices and inflict financial damage on customers.

In early June, law firm Piper Alderman announced that it had launched a class action lawsuit against energy giant AGL following an investigation into abnormal hikes in electricity spot prices in South Australia, which is part of the National Electricity Market (NEM), between 2013 and 2020.

The NEM has a spot market mechanism in which the electricity supply from power stations is matched with consumption by households and businesses in real time.

All electricity in the spot market is bought and sold at the spot price.

Details of the Lawsuit
Piper Alderman alleges that AGL breached Section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 by using bidding strategies to inflate electricity prices.

“Certain price spikes have been caused by AGL adopting ‘gaming’ strategies in their supply of electricity,” the firm wrote.

“By gaming of the system, it is alleged that AGL has created an artificial scarcity of supply in the NEM, inflated electricity prices for consumers, and prevented other generators from competing for market share.”

The law firm claimed that AGL made “initial dispatch offers” for the price of electricity generated by its power stations in South Australia and then submitted late-stage rebids to increase the spot prices.

Under current rules, generators make a bid to supply a certain amount of power at a particular price up to a day and a half before the power is needed, and they are required to honour their bids.

However, generators are allowed to submit a new offer in some circumstances, including changes in weather, consumer demand, generator performance, network constraints or bids from other participants, provided that they have legitimate justification.

An analysis by the Australian Energy Market Commission indicated that rebidding could cause a problem where there were high levels of market concentration that allowed dominant generators to set wholesale prices.

“AGL took advantage of its market power for the substantial purpose of deterring or preventing competing generators from engaging in competitive conduct,” said the class action pleadings obtained by AAP.

“AGL’s contraventions were a cause (of) the prices set under default market offers being higher than the prices otherwise would have been.”

Lead Applicant’s Accusation
SA Country Pubs, the lead applicant in the class action, said AGL’s alleged misconduct had caused the business to be overcharged for electricity bills as it had to pay over $474,000 (US$326,000) from June 1, 2017, to June 1, 2023.

The firm noted that AGL had significant competitive power in the South Australian energy market, which had higher barriers of entry for new generators because it supplied over 37 percent of electricity across the state, according to 2017 figures.

It also alleged that AGL’s practice of making rebids at the last minute blocked competitors from entering with lower bids.

“AGL engaged in the short-notice rebidding in reliance on the substantial degree of power held by it in the market,” the statement of claim says.

“(AGL) stood to gain greater financial reward from successful short-notice rebidding than a smaller generator.”

Following the launch of the class action, AGL said it was aware of the lawsuit and stood by its actions.

“AGL takes its compliance obligations seriously and intends to vigorously defend the proceedings,” it said in an announcement to investors.

The lawsuit is scheduled to come before the New South Wales Federal Court on July 13.

If found guilty, AGL could be compelled to compensate overcharged consumers in the state.

AGL Updates Earning Forecasts
In a related development, AGL announced an update to its 2022-2023 earning forecasts.

The company revised its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation to $1.33-$1.375 billion (up from $1.25-$1.375 billion previously).

Its underlying profit after tax was also predicted to reach between $255 and $285 million (up from $200-280 million).

The company attributed the improved earnings to the sustained high wholesale energy prices as well as the commencement of operation of several projects.

While delivering a brighter outlook for shareholders, AGL CEO Damien Nicks acknowledged the impact high electricity prices had on Australian households.

“We are acutely aware of the impact on our customers in this inflationary period,” he said in comments obtained by AAP.

“It’s a tough period for everyone.”

The CEO also advised customers to switch to monthly from quarterly bills to help them manage living cost pressures.

“We’ll be working with customers to help them as best as we possibly can,” he said.
The Epoch Times

…while helping ourselves whenever we can, of course!