'pull finger out' on gas exploration

[davidc4430]

Um, what happened to clean coal?

now its gas?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-15/states-need-to-pull-finger-out-on-gas-exploration-canavan-says...

the south australian govt announces its going to build a back up power generator running on gas. a federal minister says, oh right, the SA govt is going to lumber the tax payer with a bill for a huge gas powered power generator.

wasnt the federal govt telling us they were going to build clean coal power generators only a few weeks ago? where ya think they were going to get the cash from? under a magic mushroom. every power company said well we wont be building no new coal fired generators. so that leaves us, the taxpayer.

we end up paying for pretty much everything govts do.

i love footy but i'm much happier to be contributing to power stations and hospitals than football ovals.

ok, we built a water desal plant that we really havent needed "yet" and we keep getting the 'white elephant' chants, but when we next get a prolonged drought i bet those hecklers will be demanding that desal device be running flat out so they can wash their cars on sunday.

somethings you build not knowing if or when you will need them but when the day comes your glad you have them.

like car insurance, ive had it all my life and never used it, same with house insurance.

and what was the first thing the feds said after premier weatheril made the anouncment, we will be asking our lawyers if we can stop them. how dare those south australians decide they cant trust us to build a canoe, or supply power to everyone.

oh, and why doesnt the SA govt just restart the coal powered generator that was closed down, because it was at the end of its useful life. you can only keep very old generators going for so long, they wear out. they prolly should have been shut down years ago but like most of us, we all think that old washing machines going fine.....until it practcally blows up.

[davidc4430]

ok, so making it personal by calling people terrible and narrowminded is your way of defending your input to the conversation that actually had nothing to do with the conversation.

the conversation you felt the need to add your rants to was about the difference between the snowy mountain power generatation system and coal fired power stations like are used in many places.

the snowy mountain system which in my view is one of the truly great designs of power generatation sytems ever built has one thing most of us dont have, an abundance of fresh running water from high up to low down. if other states had mountains with snow in winter that would melt and flow to the sea in warmer months i'm sure we would all have similar systems and would prolly not be even discussing power shortages.

so us in other states until now have relied on coal fired boilers and sea water for creating power, not a long term reliable system as the boilers will corode and require replacing, plus all the pipework. i suspect thats a very expensive job. again i'm no expert but right or wrong its prolly something no one has planned for, particularly since the privateisation of the network.

so here we are in 2017 and with power stations reaching the end of their lives we suddenly find ourselves with a dilema. the private companys who have rung every drop of cash from the power systems are saying 'well we arnt building new power stations'

so its going to be the taxpayer who flits the bill with a mixture of old and new technology.

i'm sorry i called you a simpleton, it was an error.

please keep things on a general base and not personal attacks.

[davidc4430]

Snowy Hydro scheme boost to secure electricity supply on east coast: Government

is it any wonder people living south australia have no faith in a federal govt when they anounce the spending of 2 billion dollars increasing the power generation in a state with a liberal state govt whist the labor run states are left to their own devices.

NSW to my knowledge has never had a loss of power for any length of time to need a increase in power generation.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-16/snowy-hydro-scheme-funding-boost-to-secure-electricity-supply/...

[peteepie]

Wouldn't count on this happening any time soon.

[twyngwyn]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-16/josh-frydenberg-and-jay-weatherill-trade-blows/8359074

[bushies.girl]

Not holding my breath lol

*** wonders how the libs intend to fund this "marvelous" project? ***

[peteepie]

When did confront become shirtfront?

Oh that's right, tongue tied Tony.

What an idiot.

[davidc4430]

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@bushies.girl wrote:

Not holding my breath lol

*** wonders how the libs intend to fund this "marvelous" project? ***

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prolly going to sell south australia to the arabs.

lots of sand there just like home but nicer weather.

[lyndal1838]

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@davidc4430 wrote:

the snowy mountain system which in my view is one of the truly great designs of power generatation sytems ever built has one thing most of us dont have, an abundance of fresh running water from high up to low down. if other states had mountains with snow in winter that would melt and flow to the sea in warmer months i'm sure we would all have similar systems and would prolly not be even discussing power shortages.

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While I do agree with you that the Snowy is one of the truly great power generating systems ever built it is certainly not as simple as you are portraying here.  There was not an abundance of running water flowing downhill....certainly not enough to run a half way decent power station.

The whole system was built from scratch, starting with moving whole towns to allow for the dams to be built high in the mountains.

Once the dams were underway came the pipelines to carry the water down to the turbines....and they are huge.

It was a scheme that took years to build and even before it was operating the engineers warned the government that it would need upgrading within 50 years so we are well overdue for work to start on the upgrade.

I am very glad you qualified your remark about NSW not having power shortages because you know squat about it.  I remember as a child in the 1940s and 50s living with candles at the ready because the power was likely to go out.  I remember my Nana bringing her ice chest back into use because she could not rely on the fridge at times.  And this was in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, not out in the sticks.

In the early to mid 1970s I was a young mother with a small child and a newborn baby, living about 2k from Sydney Airport as the crow flies.... we were on power rationing for months.   Suburbs were divided by streets with one street receiving power for an hour and the next one being turned off completely....one hour later it was reversed.    My Mother who lived nearby used to cook our night meal on her gas stove so I could be doing other jobs that need electricity.  My neighbour over the back fence also had a new baby and was on the opposite power times to us....we were able to run a power cord between our houses so we could at least run a light and heat our baby's bottles....pity no-one was able to program babies to only need attention when the power was on.   I might add this was over the winter months so getting washing dry was often a problem and as for heating...forget it.

And just this last summer, businesses who used a lot of power were ordered to reduce consumption, even to close some areas down completely, to try and avoid whole areas being blacked out.

Localised blackouts are not unusual but thankfully we don't have the whole city blacked out at the same time....but NSW does need to think about our future needs before we get into the mess that SA is in.

[davidc4430]

i stand by my view if the snowy mountain water was salt water it too would be wearing out as salt water is much more damaging to the infratructure than fresh water.

[lyndal1838]

Why talk in hypotheticals?   The Snowy is not salt water so is still chugging along....but it still has the same problems as most government run projects.   The government was warned that it would need upgrading even before it was completed and in operation.  If the government had not interferred with the project and cut corners then we probably would be in a lot better shape now.

I am just glad that the government is starting to look at the upgrades that were forecast all those years ago.   By the time they get around to doing anything it will be so long overdue that we will probably be in the same mess that SA is in now.