Australian Base Load Electrical Power – Week Ending 30th September 2017

Posted on Sun 10/01/2017 by

3


By Anton Lang ~

This is the continuing Post, where each Saturday, I will detail the power consumption for the Base Load in Australia for the previous week. This will show what is actually meant by the term Base Load, and that is the minimum daily power consumption at its lowest point. Power consumption never falls below this point.

Here in Australia, that level of power is 18,000MW.

The Bayswater Coal Fired Power Plant In New South Wales

This data I have collated below is for this last week, and is for the five States connected to the Australian grids, every State east of the Western Australian border, and here I will show that data for each of those five States, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.

As you can see from these numbers, that huge amount of power is being supplied mainly by coal fired power, and on most days that coal fired power provides 80% or more of that level of power, at that time, when power consumption is at its lowest level, that total of 18,000MW.

All of this data is taken at a single point in time, and that is at 4AM of every day, when nearly all of us are sound asleep.

For the Introduction and background for this Base Load, refer back to the original Post at this link.

This is the permanent link to all the Posts with the data from each week.

For the purposes of this data, the sources are as follows.

Total Power consumption for each State

Fossil Fuel totals and Coal Fired power totals

Hydro Power totals

Wind Power totals

All these totals are from 4AM on each day, the time of minimum power consumption.

There are no coal fired power plants in South Australia or in Tasmania.

*****

Sunday 24th September 2017

New South Wales – 5820MW (Coal Fired Power – 3300MW)

Queensland – 4860MW (Coal Fired Power – 4800MW)

Victoria – 3310MW (Coal Fired Power – 3300MW)

South Australia – 890MW

Tasmania – 1010MW

Total – 15890MW

Fossil Fuel – 12500MW (Total coal fired power – 11400MW  – 71.8% of the overall total of 15890MW)

Hydro – 1300MW

Wind – 2800MW (17.6% of the total)

Renewable power – 25.8% of the total.

Sunday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 22730MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 16400MW (72.2%)

Monday 25th September 2017

New South Wales – 5740MW (Coal Fired Power – 3500MW)

Queensland – 5030MW (Coal Fired Power – 4800MW)

Victoria – 3730MW (Coal Fired Power – 4000MW)

South Australia – 1030MW

Tasmania – 1070MW

Total – 16600MW

Fossil Fuel – 14000MW (Total coal fired power – 12300MW  – 74.1% of the overall total of 16600MW)

Hydro – 1400MW

Wind – 1700MW (10.2% of the total)

Renewable power – 18.7% of the total.

Monday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 25570MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 17400MW (68%)

Tuesday 26th September 2017

New South Wales – 6170MW (Coal Fired Power – 4000MW)

Queensland – 5420MW (Coal Fired Power – 5300MW)

Victoria – 4330MW (Coal Fired Power – 4400MW)

South Australia – 1080MW

Tasmania – 1130MW

Total – 18130MW

Fossil Fuel – 15400MW (Total coal fired power – 13700MW  – 75.6% of the overall total of 18130MW)

Hydro – 1700MW

Wind – 1600MW (8.8% of the total)

Renewable power – 18.2% of the total.

Tuesday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 25310MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 17300MW (68.4%)

Wednesday 27th September 2017

New South Wales – 6230MW (Coal Fired Power – 4600MW)

Queensland – 5390MW (Coal Fired Power – 5000MW)

Victoria – 3960MW (Coal Fired Power – 4200MW)

South Australia – 1100MW

Tasmania – 1180MW

Total – 17860MW

Fossil Fuel – 15000MW (Total coal fired power – 13800MW  – 77.3% of the overall total of 17860MW)

Hydro – 1500MW

Wind – 1400MW (7.8% of the total)

Renewable power – 16.2% of the total.

Wednesday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 24820MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 17700MW (71.3%)

Thursday 28th September 2017

New South Wales – 6040MW (Coal Fired Power – 4200MW)

Queensland – 5440MW (Coal Fired Power – 5000MW)

Victoria – 3860MW (Coal Fired Power – 3700MW)

South Australia – 960MW

Tasmania – 1040MW

Total – 17340MW

Fossil Fuel – 14000MW (Total coal fired power – 12900MW  – 74.4% of the overall total of 17340MW)

Hydro – 1600MW

Wind – 2300MW (13.3% of the total)

Renewable power – 22.5% of the total.

Thursday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 25040MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 17900MW (71.5%)

Friday 29th September 2017

New South Wales – 6070MW (Coal Fired Power – 4500MW)

Queensland – 5290MW (Coal Fired Power – 5300MW)

Victoria – 3920MW (Coal Fired Power – 4300MW)

South Australia – 1040MW

Tasmania – 1080MW

Total – 17400MW

Fossil Fuel – 15000MW (Total coal fired power – 14100MW  – 81% of the overall total of 17400MW)

Hydro – 1500MW

Wind – 1200MW (6.9% of the total)

Renewable power – 15.5% of the total.

Friday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 23740MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 17500MW (73.7%)

Saturday 30th September 2017

New South Wales – 5740MW (Coal Fired Power – 4000MW)

Queensland – 5160MW (Coal Fired Power – 5000MW)

Victoria – 3600MW (Coal Fired Power – 3700MW)

South Australia – 990MW

Tasmania – 1060MW

Total – 16550MW

Fossil Fuel – 15400MW (Total coal fired power – 12700MW  – 76.7% of the overall total of 16550MW)

Hydro – 1500MW

Wind – 2300MW (13.9% of the total)

Renewable power – 23% of the total.

Saturday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 22590MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 17800MW (78.8%)

*****

This Week’s Average For Base Load – 17110MW

This Week’s Average For Base Load Supplied from Coal Fired Power – 12986MW – 75.9%

Running Weekly Average For Base Load – 18077MW

Running Weekly Average For Base Load Supplied from Coal Fired Power – 14501MW – 80.2%

*****

Comments For This Last Week

Again, we see this week that the Base Load fell marginally, again emphasising the move into the benign Months of mid Spring, where it’s not too cold to have the heaters on and not too warm to have the cool of the air conditioning on, and this is mainly felt in the homes and some workplaces at that morning point in time of 4AM where the Base Load is at its minimum. This is most noticeable on the two days of the weekend, the Saturday and the Sunday. You will note above that the day with the lowest Base Load is nearly always the Sunday, when very few work places are open, and because of that, the Base Load is a lot lower, in fact here almost 2000MW lower.

Because it is that little bit warmer and the Base Load has fallen, that has brought the average for the week a little lower, and just by checking back to the Mid Winter total, we can see that the Base Load is almost 1500MW lower than it was in Mid Winter, and that’s almost 8% lower. That average will start to rise again as Summer approaches.

However, where the real and most noticeable effect will be is in that period of the day from 9AM until around 4PM. At the moment we are still in a typical Winter pattern of power consumption where consumption rises steadily from 4AM to the Morning Peak at around 8 to 9AM, sometimes a little later, and then falls away a little by around 15% or so, and then rises again to the main Evening Peak at around 6PM, before again falling away back to that minimum Base Load at around 4AM.

As we move into the Summer Months, that Load Curve showing actual power consumption changes, and where that change is most visible is in that dip between the current two Peaks. In the Summer, power consumption will continue to rise in the morning, and instead of there being two separate Peaks as there are now, there will be just the one Peak at around 1PM, and it will stay that high for a couple of hours before gradually beginning to fall away slightly, and after 9PM or so, that fall will be similar to the fall at that time in Winter, all the way back to minimum consumption at around 4AM. That difference is indeed quite pronounced, and while the (Winter Months) low point between the dips is usually around 22000MW to 24000MW, in Summer it is regularly 28000MW to 30000MW at the same time, a full 6000MW higher, and sometimes even higher than that again.

Because of that, then as consumption drops slightly, especially in that dip between the current peaks, with less power being demanded, then those power generating entities are taking the chance to schedule maintenance of their Units so that when the time comes when they are needed in the Summer, then they can operate at their optimum level. During this last week, there were anything up to 11 Units off line across the three States which have coal fired power plants. In Queensland (Qld) especially, it was most noticeable, and at one time, there were five units off line for most of the week, and that total came in at 2120MW out of commission, and while that may not seem to be all that much, that’s almost one quarter of their Units, and just more than one quarter of all their total generation capability of 8150MW. The total coal fired Units across the Country off line amounted to a loss of around 5500MW, and that also was just a little under a quarter of the total for all coal fired power.

This closure of Units was in fact an operation which looks to be very carefully monitored. In New South Wales, (NSW) the power plants have a larger Nameplate some as high as 2600 to 2800MW at the one plant, so unlike Queensland where the plants have smaller Units, those plants in NSW have much larger Units, with some as big as 660MW and 720MW. One of those big 660MW Units at Bayswater was down for maintenance for seven to ten days and came back on line during the week. However, what was interesting to watch was that as it started to come back on line, around an hour or so later, one of the big 720MW Units at Eraring began to go off line. Each of the processes, the running up, and the running down takes some hours and it was interesting to watch the both of them going through that process. It was almost like the two Plants were in contact, an operator at Bayswater (seemingly) in contact with an operator at Eraring, telling him that it was okay to begin running down as they were running up. The output from those two Units at the two plants crossed over in the middle as one of them was moving back to maximum, and the other moving back to zero.

The Eraring Power Plant at Lake Macquarie in New South Wales

With so many Units off line across the Country, it was also interesting to watch the interchange of power between the States via the Interconnectors between the five States, because Queensland especially was missing so much of its power. Queensland regularly delivers almost 1100MW into NSW, because Qld has more coal fired power than the consumption in that State, so they can, and regularly do deliver their excess power into NSW. However, because of the losses associated with distance and power transmission, it’s not a case of that power being delivered long distances, so nearly all of the excess power being generated in Qld, then that would only be for consumption in the Northern areas of that State of NSW. This week however, NSW was delivering power back into Queensland. So, because NSW is now a little short on power, then the State further to the South, Victoria was running their coal fired power plants virtually at their maximum power generation all week. Most of that generated power in Victoria was being consumed by that State, and some of it was being diverted North into (the Southern areas) of NSW. Now, while that power ‘seems’ like it is being sent North to replace that lower power in Queensland, again, losses over transmission distance means that the excess Victorian power is only  being consumed in Southern NSW. Now, because Victoria is a little short, it is then getting power to replace what it is sending ‘North’ from the two States bordering onto it, Tasmania, and South Australia. Tasmania has nearly all its power coming from Hydro, so that Hydro was ramped up to deliver some of its excess into Victoria. South Australia has a large concentration of wind power, so (at times when that wind power was performing well) then that State was sending its excess wind power into Victoria.

So it seemed that the Southern States were replacing that lower power in Queensland, but it was really a delicate operation. South Australia and Tasmania were supplying into Victoria. Victoria was supplying into NSW, and NSW was supplying into Queensland. All of that came about because Units were off line for maintenance. So, while we as the public take that supply of electricity so much for granted, the fact that it will always be there, it is in fact quite a major operation to see that every State, and every consumer will always have electrical power available all the time.

Keep in mind here that the absolute minimum power consumption is always around that figure of 18000MW, rising to around 26000MW (that main Winter Peak in the evening) or to 30000MW, (that main Summer Peak) and as has been shown here these last weeks, there is basically only one form of power generation which can actually deliver that power, and here in Australia, that is coal fired power.

There just is no substitute for coal fired power, no matter what anyone tries to tell you.

Anton Lang uses the screen name of TonyfromOz, and he writes at this site, PA Pundits International on topics related to electrical power generation, from all sources, concentrating mainly on Renewable Power, and how the two most favoured methods of renewable power generation, Wind Power and all versions of Solar Power, fail comprehensively to deliver levels of power required to replace traditional power generation. His Bio is at this link.

OzBaseLoadTFO

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Posted in: Australia, Climate Change, Coal Fired Power, Electrical Power Generation, Politics, Public Opinion, Renewable Energy, Wind Power