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https://reneweconomy.com.au/peter-duttons-nuclear-accounting-trick-2-pretend-petrol-and-gas-are-free/>
"This is part three of a five-part series of articles examining the four
accounting tricks that the Liberal-National Party employed in the costing of
their energy plan to slow the roll-out of renewables and rely instead on
nuclear power. The first article, which provides the overarching context is
published here. Part 2 is here.
These four accounting tricks act to mislead voters that the Liberal-National
Party could lower energy bills through a shift to nuclear when in reality it is
likely to increase power bills.
This article focuses on accounting trick two of four: Only model the cost of
electricity while ignoring the cost of petrol and gas.
In the first article of this series I explained that on a per unit of energy
basis there is very little difference in cost between the Liberal-National’s
preferred power system and the one they claim as Labor’s (once we ignore the
fact the Liberal-National costing underestimated the cost of nuclear power).
Instead, much of the higher cost the Liberal-National Party attribute to the
Labor system is because this system has been sized to produce 30% more
electricity than the electricity system claimed to represent Liberal-National
policy (excluding generation from storage).
In absolute terms, the system claimed to represent Labor Party Policy produces
78,105 gigawatt-hours (GWh) more electricity per annum than the Coalition’s by
the end of the modelling period.
In Australian terms this is huge amount of additional electricity. It is equal
to adding another state to the grid with the same power consumption as NSW. It
is four times greater than the electricity produced in Western Australia’s main
grid from centralised generators.
Naturally a power system that produces 30% more electricity is going to need
more power plants and power lines to be built and therefore involve more cost
which is completely independent of any decisions around the fuel mix employed.
Yet at the same time that amount of extra energy can deliver a lot of extra
economic value. The extra value includes the fact that almost all households no
longer need to pay for petrol or gas because they’ve converted their cars and
heating systems to electricity in the Labor scenario."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
