Australian Base Load Electrical Power – Week Ending 16th December 2017

Posted on Sun 12/17/2017 by

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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.

The Bayswater Coal Fired Power Plant In New South Wales

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

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 10th December 2017

New South Wales – 6020MW (Coal Fired Power – 5000MW)

Queensland – 5280MW (Coal Fired Power – 5800MW)

Victoria – 3550MW (Coal Fired Power – 3500MW)

South Australia – 990MW

Tasmania – 930MW

Total – 16770MW

Fossil Fuel – 15800MW (Total coal fired power – 14300MW  – 85.3% of the overall total of 16770MW)

Hydro – 300MW

Wind – 1000MW (6% of the total)

Renewable power – 7.8% of the total.

Sunday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 22580MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 18200MW (80.6%)

Monday 11th December 2017

New South Wales – 6450MW (Coal Fired Power – 5500MW)

Queensland – 5590MW (Coal Fired Power – 6000MW)

Victoria – 3930MW (Coal Fired Power – 3800MW)

South Australia – 1060MW

Tasmania – 870MW

Total – 17900MW

Fossil Fuel – 16600MW (Total coal fired power – 15300MW  – 85.5% of the overall total of 17900MW)

Hydro – 500MW

Wind – 700MW (3.9% of the total)

Renewable power – 6.7% of the total.

Monday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 25530MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 19800MW (77.6%)

Tuesday 12th December 2017

New South Wales – 7180MW (Coal Fired Power – 6000MW)

Queensland – 5390MW (Coal Fired Power – 5900MW)

Victoria – 4090MW (Coal Fired Power – 4100MW)

South Australia – 1120MW

Tasmania – 910MW

Total – 18690MW

Fossil Fuel – 17400MW (Total coal fired power – 16000MW  – 85.6% of the overall total of 18690MW)

Hydro – 400MW

Wind – 1000MW (5.4% of the total)

Renewable power – 7.5% of the total.

Tuesday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 27380MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 18700MW (68.3%)

Wednesday 13th December 2017

New South Wales – 7220MW (Coal Fired Power – 5300MW)

Queensland – 5360MW (Coal Fired Power – 5600MW)

Victoria – 4160MW (Coal Fired Power – 4000MW)

South Australia – 1220MW

Tasmania – 910MW

Total – 18870MW

Fossil Fuel – 16600MW (Total coal fired power – 14900MW  – 79% of the overall total of 18870MW)

Hydro – 700MW

Wind – 1600MW (8.5% of the total)

Renewable power – 12.2% of the total.

Wednesday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 30480MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 19000MW (62.3%)

Thursday 14th December 2017

New South Wales – 7330MW (Coal Fired Power – 5600MW)

Queensland – 5420MW (Coal Fired Power – 6000MW)

Victoria – 4550MW (Coal Fired Power – 3500MW)

South Australia – 1210MW

Tasmania – 960MW

Total – 19470MW

Fossil Fuel – 17400MW (Total coal fired power – 15100MW  – 77.6% of the overall total of 19470MW)

Hydro – 1100MW

Wind – 900MW (4.6% of the total)

Renewable power – 10.3% of the total.

Thursday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 28970MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 19600MW (67.7%)

Friday 15th December 2017

New South Wales – 7310MW (Coal Fired Power – 6100MW)

Queensland – 5480MW (Coal Fired Power – 6000MW)

Victoria – 4170MW (Coal Fired Power – 3700MW)

South Australia – 1180MW

Tasmania – 970MW

Total – 19110MW

Fossil Fuel – 18000MW (Total coal fired power – 15800MW  – 82.7% of the overall total of 19110MW)

Hydro – 700MW

Wind – 300MW (1.6% of the total)

Renewable power – 5.2% of the total.

Friday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 26200MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 19500MW (74.4%)

Saturday 16th December 2017

New South Wales – 7310MW (Coal Fired Power – 5800MW)

Queensland – 5550MW (Coal Fired Power – 6000MW)

Victoria – 3900MW (Coal Fired Power – 3700MW)

South Australia – 1110MW

Tasmania – 930MW

Total – 18800MW

Fossil Fuel – 17500MW (Total coal fired power – 15500MW  – 82.4% of the overall total of 18800MW)

Hydro – 700MW

Wind – 550MW (2.9% of the total)

Renewable power – 6.6% of the total.

Saturday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 25970MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 19000MW (73.2%)

*****

This Week’s Average For Base Load – 18516MW

This Week’s Average For Base Load Supplied from Coal Fired Power – 15272MW – 82.5%

Running Weekly Average For Base Load – 17896MW

Running Weekly Average For Base Load Supplied from Coal Fired Power – 14280MW – 79.8%

*****

Comments For This Last Week

While power consumption on the Sunday was at its usual low amount, as of Monday morning, that Base Load was over 18000MW every morning, and over 19,000MW on two of those mornings, with the average for the week over 18,500MW, so the Summer power rise is well and truly in place.

That can also be noticed with the very large increase in the Peak Power, now around 26,000 to 28,000MW, with power consumption on Wednesday spiking to over 30,000MW, which is almost 10,000MW plus higher than for the same time  of day barely four to five weeks back now.

Because of that, most coal fired plants have all their Units generating and delivering what they can, and this week, only three to a maximum of five of those Units across the Country were off line at any one time.

As power consumption overall increases substantially, so also does the output from those coal fired plants, now constantly delivering between 15,000MW (at the 4AM Base Load time) and 19000MW at Peak Power time.

While most States increased their power consumption, it was most noticeable in the three big States, NSW, Queensland and Victoria. The other two States South Australia and Tasmania barely consume 5% and 6% of Australia’s total power respectively, so, even though the increase in power consumption in those two States can be seen, those increases pale into insignificance when it comes to the other three States.

This was most noticeable in NSW, and here I want to highlight one day in NSW, Thursday 14th December, where the Peak Power consumption was 12,700MW. That total is FIVE times higher than the total power consumption for South Australia and Tasmania COMBINED. The Image for that Load Curve on that day is shown below and this starts at Midnight, goes through the day and then back to Midnight. The Load Curve is the lighter coloured line while the heavier coloured line is the Cost per Unit for power, here shown as $116.37/MWH. That total was reached at just before 4PM.

Now, one thing I would like to show you here is the cost of actually generating that amount of power. You can just multiply that total power by the cost and that comes in at just under $1.5 Million, and while that is at that single point in time, it is a similar cost for the whole hour around that point.

Now, for some context go back to that 4AM time, the Base Load. On that same morning, and here you can see that at the low point on the left of that image, the cost there was around $64/MWH, so, with power consumption then at 7330MW at that $64/MWH cost, that total cost for power being generated at that time is only $470,000. That’s less than one third of the cost for power at that Peak Power time. Of interest here is that at 4AM, the vast bulk of power generation (80% of it) is coal fired power, while at the Peak Period, only 66% of that power is coal fired power in that State. It’s just one indicator that coal fired power is the cheapest of all to generate.

Also of interest here is the extended period of very large power consumption. Look at the image and note the large spike upwards during the morning rise in consumption. The top of that step after that spike is at around 10AM, and at that point the cost for power is around the $100/MWH mark. Now look at the right of that image. Note the vertical spike downwards, and the cost then stays low, well that is at around 10PM, and the top of that spike is also around that $100/MWH mark.

That’s a full 12 hour period of time, and the cost for power was over $100/MWH, for that 12 hour period.

Doing the Maths for that 12 hour period, it comes in at a cost of just under $15 Million to generate power for that 12 hour period, or $1.25 Million per hour just to generate electrical power, and just for this one State NSW.

That is the cost just to generate the power, and that price is then paid by the Retailing entities which purchase that power at this wholesale price. They then sell that power to every consumer who uses electricity. The average price they sell it for is between 25 to 30 cents per KWH, which translates to $250 to $300/MWH. So for consumers, they paid around $3.45 Million for the power they consumed across that 12 hour period.

While power consumption has increased markedly with the onset of Summer, what this data shows pretty conclusively is that that when huge amounts of power are required, and required on an absolute basis, regular constant and reliable power, that power can only be supplied from one source. When you need between 18,000MW and 30,000MW, you need coal fired power.

Again, there just is no substitute for coal fired power.

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