Australian Base Load Electrical Power – Week Ending 2nd June 2018

Posted on Sun 06/03/2018 by

3


By Anton Lang ~

Week 48

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. (See data for the Running Weekly Average For Base Load below)

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 27th May 2018

New South Wales – 6350MW (Coal Fired Power – 4500MW)

Queensland – 5280MW (Coal Fired Power – 5400MW)

Victoria – 3650MW (Coal Fired Power – 3900MW)

South Australia – 940MW

Tasmania – 1070MW

Total – 17290MW

Fossil Fuel – 14500MW (Total coal fired power – 13800MW  – 79.8% of the overall total of 17290MW)

Hydro – 1200MW

Wind – 2200MW (12.7% of the total)

Renewable power – 19.7% of the total.

Sunday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 25090MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 18100MW (72.1%)

Monday 28th May 2018

New South Wales – 6440MW (Coal Fired Power – 4600MW)

Queensland – 5220MW (Coal Fired Power – 5400MW)

Victoria – 3710MW (Coal Fired Power – 4000MW)

South Australia – 950MW

Tasmania – 1090MW

Total – 17410MW

Fossil Fuel – 14800MW (Total coal fired power – 14000MW  – 80.4% of the overall total of 17410MW)

Hydro – 1200MW

Wind – 2000MW (11.5% of the total)

Renewable power – 18.4% of the total.

Monday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 26830MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 18200MW (67.8%)

Tuesday 29th May 2018

New South Wales – 6720MW (Coal Fired Power – 4600MW)

Queensland – 5260MW (Coal Fired Power – 5100MW)

Victoria – 3760MW (Coal Fired Power – 3900MW)

South Australia – 990MW

Tasmania – 970MW

Total – 17700MW

Fossil Fuel – 14400MW (Total coal fired power – 13600MW  – 76.8% of the overall total of 17700MW)

Hydro – 1100MW

Wind – 2800MW (15.8% of the total)

Renewable power – 22% of the total.

Tuesday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 27050MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 17900MW (66.2%)

Wednesday 30th May 2018

New South Wales – 6600MW (Coal Fired Power – 5000MW)

Queensland – 5320MW (Coal Fired Power – 5600MW)

Victoria – 4110MW (Coal Fired Power – 4400MW)

South Australia – 1040MW

Tasmania – 1130MW

Total – 18200MW

Fossil Fuel – 16000MW (Total coal fired power – 15000MW  – 82.4% of the overall total of 18200MW)

Hydro – 1100MW

Wind – 1500MW (8.2% of the total)

Renewable power – 14.3% of the total.

Wednesday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 27920MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 18200MW (65.2%)

Thursday 31st May 2018

New South Wales – 6750MW (Coal Fired Power – 4900MW)

Queensland – 5340MW (Coal Fired Power – 5600MW)

Victoria – 3950MW (Coal Fired Power – 4400MW)

South Australia – 1180MW

Tasmania – 1080MW

Total – 18300MW

Fossil Fuel – 15900MW (Total coal fired power – 14900MW  – 81.4% of the overall total of 18300MW)

Hydro – 1300MW

Wind – 1700MW (9.3% of the total)

Renewable power – 16.4% of the total.

Thursday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 28750MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 19600MW (68.2%)

Friday 1st June 2018

New South Wales – 7010MW (Coal Fired Power – 5400MW)

Queensland – 5390MW (Coal Fired Power – 5600MW)

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

South Australia – 1060MW

Tasmania – 1180MW

Total – 19040MW

Fossil Fuel – 16500MW (Total coal fired power – 15400MW  – 80.9% of the overall total of 19040MW)

Hydro – 1400MW

Wind – 1500MW (7.9% of the total)

Renewable power – 15.2% of the total.

Friday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 28330MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 18700MW (66%)

Saturday 2nd June 2018

New South Wales – 6790MW (Coal Fired Power – 5900MW)

Queensland – 5370MW (Coal Fired Power – 5700MW)

Victoria – 4370MW (Coal Fired Power – 4400MW)

South Australia – 1120MW

Tasmania – 1170MW

Total – 18820MW

Fossil Fuel – 17200MW (Total coal fired power – 16000MW  – 85% of the overall total of 18820MW)

Hydro – 1250MW

Wind – 900MW (4.8% of the total)

Renewable power – 11.4% of the total.

Saturday Peak Power at 6PM – Total Power Consumption – 26440MW and Coal Fired Power supplied 19000MW (71.9%)

*****

This Week’s Average For Base Load – 18109MW

This Week’s Average For Base Load Supplied from Coal Fired Power – 14672MW – 81%

Running Weekly Average For Base Load – 17954MW

Running Weekly Average For Base Load Supplied from Coal Fired Power – 14561MW – 81.1%

*****

This Week’s Average For Peak Load – 27202MW

This Week’s Average For Peak Load Supplied from Coal Fired Power – 18529MW – 68.1%

*****

Comments For This Last Week

This week saw the average for that minimum power consumption rise beyond 1800MW, and because of that, the rolling average after almost a year is closing back upwards and towards that figure of 1800MW.

It was most noticeable at the time of Peak Load, and then power consumption was higher, and the weekly average for that was 1000MW higher than for last week.

The average for coal fired power at that minimum Base Load time was around the same, as an average of seven Units across the week were off line, so they will be ready for the extra power required for Winter, which is now officially here. The percentage of the total at that Base Load minimum being supplied by coal fired power is steady at 81%.

Last year, I made a submission to a Queensland Government Inquiry, which said that the State will move to having 50% of its power supplied from Renewables by 2030. That detailed and comprehensive submission of 18 pages showed that it would be virtually impossible to do that, and as a result of the Inquiry, one of the main decisions was that they would not be closing down any of their existing coal fired power plants in that time, guaranteeing that the target cannot be achieved, although the Inquiry did not say that.

At the moment, I am now three weeks into detailing the daily data for power generation from every source here in Australia, and my interest was piqued as to what the ‘numbers’ might show currently for that State of Queensland.

It was actually quite an interesting exercise.

So, what I did was this, as a side exercise to see how much power was being delivered from coal fired sources just in that State of Queensland.

I went to the AEMO site for power consumption, and they list that total power consumption on a State by State basis. From that, and for the State of Queensland, I added up the actual power consumption total at the top of each hour, from midnight to midnight, and then divided that out to give me an average for the whole day for power consumption.

Then I did the same for coal fired power generation on the same basis, from the same Midnight back to Midnight, adding up the totals at the top of each hour, and dividing that out to give me an average power generation.

I did the exercise for just the most recent five working day week, and the results are as follows.

Day –           Consumption – Coal Fired Generation – Percentage from Coal fired

Monday –       6287MW –          5950MW –                             94.64%
Tuesday –       6253MW –          5950MW –                             95.15%
Wednesday –  6162MW –          6050MW –                             98.1%
Thursday –      6197MW –          5900MW –                             95.2%
Friday –           6164MW –          6000MW –                             97.5%

The average for that five day week was as follows

Five Days –      6213MW –          5970MW –                             96.1%

So, the State is currently generating 96% of its actual power consumption from coal fired sources alone, and the Inquiry stated hand on heart that they can get that down below 50% in the next 12 years.

Yeah!

Good luck with that.

They could ‘artfully’ say that Queensland is regularly delivering 1100MW into New South Wales, via the State’s Interconnector between the two States, so that doesn’t count, but the actual power is still being generated IN Queensland, not in New South Wales.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how they can get away with not actually finding out the facts and then informing the public of the real truth, but I guess that would show that the Inquiry was a bit of a farce really, eh!.

The last thing I mentioned in that detailed submission of mine was this:

If I might close on a personal note here, in 2030, I will be in my late 70’s. I most probably will have long forgotten this submission, as will perhaps everyone on the panel, and even everyone in Queensland. However, I can guarantee you this. In 2030 Queensland will not have 50% of its power sourced from Renewable power, no matter who says it is achievable.

So, once again, I have found that coal fired power is actually essential to keep things running. There really is no substitute

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