Power problems continueBut renewable energy advocates say the state's plunge on wind power is not to blame, and the problems are a continuation of South Australia's history of paying above average prices because of its isolation and concentration of its generation capacity. ENGIE spokesman Trevor Rowe said the company was not being paid by the government on top of the wholesale price it receives for the power in the National Electricity Market (NEM). One of Pelican Point's two gas turbines hasn't operated since April and the other was switched off this year. Mr Rowe said South Australia's high NEM prices had not previously enticed Pelican Point back into the market because of tight gas supply and high gas prices. "Its a complicated story. It links tightness in the gas market and high gas prices and we had not made a decision to go back into the market for those reasons. When we were approached by the South Australian government, we found a way that we were able to do it," Mr Rowe said. Mr Koutsantonis said energy users were warned of the interconnector outage and could have hedged. But one large user said the market was "just seeing the start" of the problems in South Australia. "What the government is doing is a good start but it's not going to address the problem in the long term," he said.
If Australia’s petrol prices were below Singapore prices, Australian fuel suppliers would have no commercial incentive to import to Australia (because sales of that fuel would be at a loss here). In addition, Australian refiners would have an incentive to export production.
Gas was at $22 a gigajoule in Adelaide yesterday, nearly four times the usual level. But a meeting of federal and state energy ministers to consider the problems in the energy markets has had to be postponed indefinitely because of the delay in determining the outcome of the election. Average prices hit highCold weather and the closure of South Australia's Northern and Playford coal-fired power stations as wind provides an increasing share of the state's power have combined to send NEM prices to their highest average levels since the 2007 drought. But South Australia, which led the charge into wind and solar energy and gets two-fifths of its power from these sources, has suffered the highest prices on the mainland, increasing the pressure on the state's industrial energy users.
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"The failure in the energy market has led the Government to ask ENGIE, the owner of Pelican Point Power Station, to run the plant for a short period, providing 239MW of additional supply into the energy market."It is believed the increased base-load supply from the previously mothballed plant will lead to improved system security."The station was switched on on Thursday afternoon and was set to generate as much as 150 MW later that night and be capable of operating at full capacity of 247Mw after that depending on demand. Energy experts say South Australia's heavy reliance on wind energy is compounding its problems in two ways, first by forcing the remaining baseload generators to earn more revenue in shorter periods of time when the wind isn't blowing, and secondly by forcing baseload coal and gas generators out of the market altogether.
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