power out

[opinionated ow]

So today, South Australia, home of (quite literally) the most expensive electricity in the world, had an entire statewide black out. We lost power at 3:45PM across the entire state! Effectively they engineered the whole state onto one circuit. Yes we had a decent sized storm but that's no excuse. I could understand a localised power failure (although this happens way too often here). It's an utter joke. You know it's a pathetic situation when even Reuters is covering it. :flaming::flaming::flaming:

[Gnam]

First Puerto Rico and now Australia. These tiny island nations need to get it together. :p

[opinionated ow]

power came back on in parts of adelaide about 6 hours later. they're talking days in some of the major regional centres. Yes we had storms but to allow a whole state to go down is insane. Oh the joys of believing wind power is the solution to everything...

[Tifosi24]

power came back on in parts of adelaide about 6 hours later. they're talking days in some of the major regional centres. Yes we had storms but to allow a whole state to go down is insane. Oh the joys of believing wind power is the solution to everything...

I will have to read up on it, but this sounds more like an N-1 planning problem as oppose to a wind power issue. In fairness though, the US grid has seen entire regions go down because of single stations failing. It is one of the pitfalls of an interconnected systems.

[Napoleon]

the US grid has seen entire regions go down because of single stations failing.

Yeah, remember this one (link below). A power station whose smokestack I can see from my neighborhood went down and poof 55 million people ended up in the dark, some for days, including NYC which is 400 miles away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

[cameraman]

I've seen some rather pointed critiques of the power grid in Australia. Seems that the modes and locations of the generation have gotten out ahead of the grid to deliver it. Modifying a grid is as expensive as holy hell but from the other side of the planet it sure looks like you could use it.

[Insomniac]

Yeah, remember this one (link below). A power station whose smokestack I can see from my neighborhood went down and poof 55 million people ended up in the dark, some for days, including NYC which is 400 miles away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

I can't believe that was in 2003...

[dando]

I can't believe that was in 2003...

That was after they switched from burning the river for power. :gomer: ;)

[datachicane]

That was after they switched from burning the river for power. :gomer: ;)

:rofl::rofl:

[opinionated ow]

I will have to read up on it, but this sounds more like an N-1 planning problem as oppose to a wind power issue. In fairness though, the US grid has seen entire regions go down because of single stations failing. It is one of the pitfalls of an interconnected systems.


I've seen some rather pointed critiques of the power grid in Australia. Seems that the modes and locations of the generation have gotten out ahead of the grid to deliver it. Modifying a grid is as expensive as holy hell but from the other side of the planet it sure looks like you could use it.

It sounds like they managed to knock over 22 HT transmission towers. We live in a country that has cyclones and they manage to stand through those...so the local government buggered up. We also lost one of the major power sources due to a strike. Again the government because their renewable energy target made running coal/gas uneconomic through subsidies. Then the interconnector (the bloody great extension lead to Victoria) cut itself because the frequency coming from the SA end was at risk of blowing up the grid in Victoria. And the whole reason we need the Victorian extension lead is because they ran the power generation out of town! SO effectively the state was on one circuit...daft :rolleyes::\:tony:

Still no phone lines though...

[Gnam]

Is ThunderDome up and running yet? ;)

https://s10.postimg.org/dtubj5fqh/primary_mad_max_2_1981_04_g.jpg