*Pic: This incredibly stark photo illustrates Hydro’s problem … Taken March 5 by Isla MacGregor of Lake Burbury. Part of the flooded Crotty settlement is now exposed and water levels are down to just over 6 metres … and the forecasts for rain are not rosy … – See more at: http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/BASSLINK-wrap-Libs-secretly-migrated-its-own-In/#sthash.Cq65fPgo.dpuf
THE lynch mob is baying for blood. Running down the dams during the carbon tax years is the accepted reason for our energy predicament. It’s the fault of bean counters and traders who have hijacked Hydro Tasmania.
No need to bother checking evidence, mismanagement is the issue. Even Energy Minister Groom, tiring of the political pressure, is starting to distance himself from Hydro.
But what if this version is wrong? Sure, Hydro’s board and management have questions to answer, but what if the whole Basslink deal was a dud destined to fail where, once a decision was made in principle to lay the Basslink cable, the need to get the project across the line triumphed over the need for a robust assessment of the business case.
Is Geoff Willis the person to head a taskforce to investigate energy security, a problem Basslink was designed to fix, when his fingerprints are all over the Basslink business case approval and implementation as chief executive and director of Hydro at the time?
The Government initially resisted establishing a parliamentary committee, no doubt guided by the political maxim to avoid inquiries unless you know the result.
The Government relented and took the chance to refer matters to the joint house Public Accounts Committee, a six member committee with two Liberals and chairman Ivan Dean, a populist grassroots politician whose Hansard record shows a preponderant interest in police procedural matters and a state free of foxes and cigarettes.
Mr Groom has got himself a suitable chairman, one who inhabits a world where the only thing worse than a fox that smokes is a carbon tax.
The evidence that dam levels have been recklessly managed is not overwhelming. The whirlwind known as Kevin07 precipitated the possibility of a carbon tax. In the seven full years since, from 2008-2009 to 2014-2015, dam levels rose.
While it’s common to refer to a per cent of full capacity when discussing dam levels, the amount of stored potential electricity in GWh is more meaningful. Also dam inflows being rainfall less evaporation and outflows for generation purposes are best described in GWh terms.
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Premier Hodgman has shown an appalling lack of leadership. The opportunity beckoned to solve a problem that appeared created by others. His Government has dithered, preferring a partisan bunfight and a cover up of the underlying causes while the lynch mob takes over.
John Lawrence is an economist who lives on Tasmania’s North-West Coast. He is a blogger at tasfintalk.blogspot.com
Read the full, superb article, Mercury HERE
• TT MEDIA HERE where there are permanent links to what the Pollies say …
• Luigi in Comments: … And Matthew Groom’s continued insistence that this is an “extreme weather event” is just stupid. Or he presumes that the public – the electorate – is stupid.
• The Marcus Review: Tasmania’s Energy Scandal Tasmania has provided yet another example of what happens when you let the lunatics run the asylum for too long. This time, it has run out of electricity to the point of needing 200 temporary diesel generators – at a start up cost of $44 million, plus operating costs of $22 million per month. As you’ll soon see, these costs are merely the steam emanating from the hot pile of dung shoveled up in this scandal – whose key players include a greedy government owned hydroelectric operator, an inept State government and Australia’s most socialistic Prime Minister in history. Even if you’re not Tasmanian, you should care about this: it’s your money that’s paying for it. Act I: the table is set …
• Mike Bolan in Comments: I asked the question “why does the State government not want us to take steps to protect ourselves in the event of power outages?” Why don’t they want us to protect ourselves if the power becomes unreliable?” I couldn’t think of any good reason so I now must ask What if it is we who have changed? What if our politicians are as ignorant of affairs as we were before Google Earth, social media, emails and search engines? What if the world were changing faster than the (ponderous) institutions of government can accommodate or adapt? …
• John Lawrence in Comments: … Everyone’s concentrating on finding enough power for our needs. That’s the easy bit. Finding enough $s for Hydro to survive is the real problem. That’s why Matt Groom is sweating every time he appears on camera.
TUESDAY, march 29 …
• Luigi in Comments: And the Hydro’s Energy in Storage data (the % of the water level in the dams)- which is usually updated on Monday afternoon – was not updated yesterday. I guess they were resting over Easter. Nobody in government would have noticed anyway. HERE
• Get with the WIDGET HERE, which reveals Tassie’s energy use
