Chris Hogg wrote
Rod Speed wrote
harry wrote
wrote

http://stopthesethings.com/2016/04/0...rly-worthless/

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainab...newable-energy

Just because some **** rag like that claims something...

What Tasmania actually needs is more than one cable to the mainland.

But AIUI from that first link Tasmania's problems were/are
in part due to the fact that Tas Hydro took advantage of
high electricity prices in Victoria and South Australia

Nope. The current problem in Tasmania is due to the fact
that the undersea cable to the mainland that supplys much
of the power that Tasmania uses has failed and it is taking
a while to find where the the fault in the cable is and
replacing the bit of cable that has failed mechanically.

At a time of lower than usual rainfall in Tasmania, so
the hydro dams are getting very low indeed, now down
to 13% levels and predicted to get even lower by the
time that the cable will be working again.

(a consequence of power shortages
there due to Green policies failing),

There are no power shortages in Victoria
and South Australia due to anything.

and exported power to those states via the interconnect cable,

That never happened. The flow of power
is always in one direction, into Tasmania.

running down its own hydro reserves in the process.

The level in the hydro dams has dropped significantly
because the undersea cable failed and the main source
of power for Tasmania has to be the hydro system and
the rainfall has been lower than usual as well.

If it had two cables,

They would be able to get the power they need
using the cable that is still working if one fails.

who is there to say Tas Hydro wouldn't have
just run down its hydro reserves even faster?

They didn't run down the hydro dams supplying
Victoria and South Australia, the cable when it is
working only supplys Tasmania with power from
the mainland, from the massive brown coal power
stations in Victoria which have the cheapest power
it the country apart from the Snowy hydro power.

And the Snowy system isnt primarily a hydro system
that just supplys power using the water stored there,
its essentially a load balancing system which pumps
water into the snowy dams at times of low demand
like overnight and then supplys power in the peak
demand times during the day, allowing the coal
fired power stations that supply almost all of the
power to run at constant generation levels etc
for the entire national grid that covers the whole
of the SE and eastern side of the country.

And anyway, it doesn't sound as though Victoria
and South Australia have much electricity to spare,

Then you need a new hearing aid.

even if there was a second cable.

It wouldn't be used to supply more power, it
would be there to ensure that if one cable fails,
there is another available to use to supply power
to Tasmania while the failed one is fixed.