As predicted, looks like the albatros is well and truly tied around our necks!

Now for the other part of the prediction (also previously denied).  With Bass Stink up and running (backfiring) it is an ideal time for large manufacturers (with large and heavily subsidised power contracts) to stup-up shop and sell their contracted power on the grid for an even better profit - as happened down the entire NW Coast of the USA a few years ago when the electricity marketd was deregulated.

Hydro need an extra $300M ? Easy - just charge Comalco the same rate we all have to pay for electricity (an average of 15 cents kwh) instead of the ridiculous pittance they currently get charged. 

That should net Hydro a cool $381M per year! problem solved - why is the Tasmanian public subsidising the massive profit margins of UK company Riotinto?.  And if they do their ususal bluff routine of closing down/sacking workers - thats fine too.  They can always get work at the new Stink Mill just 7km down the road.

It will be very interesting to see if the results of the “system crash” investigation are made public. Given the rework involved for the NEMCO migration, it will be a complex process.

The Hydro used to run their network in house from a high floor in their headquarters opposite the Marine Board building in Hobart (hence the high level of security afforded that building). My understanding is that as part of NEM, all of the Hydro generating capacity is now driven from Sydney and Brisbane, where NEMCO is based, since that’s where Aurora has to send its orders for power.

This is despite Basslink only representing a fraction of the total capacity in the Tasmanian power generation system.

The other question of course, is how much did Aurora pay for the power from the Hydro? :)

- M.

….Carn then, what am I bid for these as new turbines?

Who’ll start me off….carn $100 gets you going.

Carn…..shiny turbines, thousands of uses…we’ll throw in a Snowy Hydro project, couple of helicopters and a submarine…….come back….oy…where are you going…..

This is a very timely warning about Tasmania’s possible future in the Basslink era.

Tasmanian bulk power users, whose demand caused the need to buy this $10,000 megawatt hour, pay about .5 cents per kilowatt hour ($500 per megawatt hour); the Hydro pays $10,000 for the kilowatt hour via Basslink and sells it to Tasmanian bulk users for $500. 

Meanwhile the rest of us pay 15.3 cent per kilowatt hour, 45 times more than the multinational companies that suck up about half of Tasmania’s electricity supply.

I’m curious.  If there hadn’t been a network glitch at those brief points in time when the Hydro had to pay so much for Bass Link power and, in fact, electricity had been flowing in the opposite direction, would the Hydro have been receiving payment for power sold of a similar magnitude?  A peak or average price paid seems irrelevant in such a market anyway.  What I would like to know once this new infrastructure is bedded down is what the difference is between the total payment (average times megawatt hours) for power purchased via Bass Link and the power sold via Bass Link.  An average paid seems meaningless unless you’re putting a slant on a news story.  Philippa Duncan seems to me to have written about nothing at all by not providing meaningful context.  She has failed to ask the questions a balanced reporter might have sought.  It’s becoming par for the course for the Mercury when they write about their pet hates.

The comments about the turbines at Bell Bay conveniently forget the context as well.  David Groves would be carrying on like a pork chop if we had power shortages and no Bass Link.  At the time the turbines were installed we were eight years into a period of below average rainfall, storages were at all time lows, and Bass Link was delayed, maybe for 12 months, due to transformer damage during shipping from Europe.  I’ll think you’ll find that significant rainfall started occurring immediately after they were commissioned.

It was insurance.  Did your house burn down last year David Groves?  If not, have you wasted your insurance premium?  You suffer the mean smugness of someone who has never had to make real decisions on behalf of others.