In May of this year, the state of South Australia closed down its last coal-fired power stations. This could happen because the state has an extensive installation of gas turbine, wind turbine and solar energy power.

A report from InDaily reads like a murder mystery: “On Christmas Day, according to the average price tables published by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the regional reference price (average spot price) for a megawatt hour of electricity in South Australia was $91.67. The corresponding prices in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland were $37.33, $20.38 and $36.20 . . . On December 17, the average spot price for a megawatt hour of electricity in South Australia was $259.59, while on December 26 it was only $5.06.” Just to clarify, in South Africa, the price of electricity is about $89/MWh. So, they are the same as us. Sort of. Except on December 17, when their price was $259.59/MWh.

You do not need to be a genius to work why the rate fluctuates so much. If you are a nimble operator with a gas turbine, you can trade your energy sales on a daily basis – on days of high need (such as during the very hot middle of December) you can charge like a wounded buffalo at $ 259.59/MWh. But, let us face it, nobody is working much the day after Christmas, so the price falls to $5.06/MWh.

South Australia does not have a high demand for electricity; its demand is about the same as Zambia’s, at about 3 000 MW. If you inject into this sort of power system a lot of wind turbines, which carry about 46% of the total load, then, given the fact that the wind can drop from hero to zero in an hour – since you cannot ramp up a coal station in an hour (or at all, if they are shut down) – then you are going to have to turn to your friendly gas turbine operator. In this case, it is AGL, which own the big gas turbine facility on Torrens Island. I am sure that the AGL people are just nice guys you want to take hunting and fishing but, let us face it, when somebody phones you and asks if you have about 1 400 MW to spare, you will look at them with the hooded eyes of a money lender.

The Australia Business Review reported recently: “In 2014, AGL said it would take four of the older units at Torrens out of service by 2017, but a reduction in capacity in the state has pushed it to reverse the decision.

“‘As a result of the recent retirement of other baseload generation assets in South Australia, market conditions have changed to the extent that there has been a significant tightening of supply to the market,’ AGL executive GM for group operations Doug Jackson said.

“In deferring the mothballing, AGL will continue to play a key role in maintaining South Australian security of energy supply.”

Key role and very profitable. It is not the gas turbine operator’s fault. If the South Australian government is dof enough to get rid of all baseload coal-fired power stations in homage and deference to the god of carbon dioxide emissions . . . what did they think was going to happen? They should have asked the question: “Golly, we’re so green but what will we do in the middle of a windless night?” They clearly did not.

As usual, the green lobby, in the form of Tristan Edis, director of analysis and advisory services at Green Energy Markets, points out that the closure of baseload coal-fired power stations and the proliferation of unreliable wind and solar power has nothing to do with the increase in energy costs in South Australia. Nope. He says: “Yet, everyone has missed the main cause of a doubling in South Australia’s power price rises – a doubling in gas prices.” I am sure he is a fine guy but good grief – clearly, the gas turbine guys needed more gas. Demand goes up and so does the price. Oh I wish I knew what was going to happen in this country. I would buy a gas turbine – I would, and wait for my ship to come in.