FOYLE/FOIBLE/QUOTE,,..<<Wind farms can shut down because there is no wind or because it is too windy.>>

SORRY..BUT THIS IS WRONG[THEY FREEZE UP]..thus when no wind..they actualy draw power

plus in uk recently..many are actually payed..not to produce
[WIND IS FINE..in the middle of nowhere[or on a house/but even there they fail HUGELY..

<<..Having thermal plant on standby is inefficient and the cost of that inefficiency should be charged against the farms.>.

everything hAS A COST..but coal makes steam
steam can be stored in a heat sink.

ok they take a HALF HOur to get to peak efficiency
BUT WE DUN IT FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS..cause it WORKS

ps anyone else niting that off peak dont gO OFF FOR AT LEAST THE LAST WEEK

THEY MUST NEED THE EXTRTA CHARGES A REAL LOT

PS..i was a low power user..when they were giving away solar[with the 60 cent buyback]..that is criminal[colluded criminALITY.

TODAY THEY GET 6 CENTS..the imbalance alone is criminal

<<..While thermal power has pollution effects
renewables have far higher real costs.>>

YEP..YOO TRUE BLUE*
renewables folly has doubled the cost..of cheaper power[so far]
via the grand enron sceme..[their criminality went global

they never had a judgment 'day'
911..[or rather the proof held in building 7..just blew away.

tHAT TREASON HAS SINCE BEEN COMPOUNDED ADD INFINITUM
http://republicbroadcasting.org/Stang/index.php?cmd=archives.month&ProgramID=77&year=14&month=2&backURL=index.php%253Fcmd%253Darchives.getyear%2526ProgramID%253D77%26year%3D14%26backURL%3Dindex.php%253Fcmd%253Darchives
http://rss.infowars.com/20140219_Wed_Alex.mp3

The price on carbon is not the cause of rising electricity prices, but rather privatization and gold plating. I'm very much in favor of real competition, private enterprise and entrepreneurs.
However, that doesn't include cash cow essential services, and holding captive audiences to ransom. Nor does it include exponentially expanding foreign debt, or debt instruments used to privatize various essential services and then ask the endlessly long suffering consumer to fund all the debt servicing costs; as well as provide a hitherto unnecessary dividend for so-called offshore investors.
Privatization provides a once only revenue stream, that is then used to balance the budget, simply because we don't have the nouse or testicular fortitude, to close all the many thousands of tax loopholes and avoidance. The loss of this former revenue simply compounds the structural deficit, given former reliable earnings are removed from inland revenue, by very shortsighted ideologues, unable to think beyond the very next election cycle.
Our railways stopped earning significant income for the nation, because we wouldn't harmonize and modernize.
Imagine if we had beaten the Japanese to install rapid rail, along a standard gauge, our system would not only have paid for itself several times over, but fostered many brand new export industries, in a land held back by the tyranny of distance and the often onerous cost of transport.
Imagine if we'd invested in cheaper than coal thorium reactors in the fifties when they were invented? We'd still have a credible manufacturing base. I mean aluminium is little more than congealed electricity, and we invented the direct reduction method for making steel!
Science and maths is not only missing in our schools, but far more importantly, from our collective parliaments as well!
What we need are visionaries, and what we have got, it would seem, are self serving ideologues, and their seemingly endless cronyism? Little wonder, there's no end to soaring electricity prices!
Rhrosty.

The privatisation of essential services were sold to us by politicians who claim to act in the interests of the public as to delivering improved efficiency, cost effectiveness and cheaper prices.

It has now been shown that these politicians are liars.

Economists sell the great lie, that competition reduces prices. Victoria is an example where competition increases prices.

It is not in the best interests of a private electrical company to reduce consumption or prices, after all the share holder is number one, not the consumer.

I cannot help but wonder how many of our ex politicians, or serving politicians have shares in these companies.

wooly B 70% of households in vic have not switched their retailer.
The big conglomerates are charging as much as 40 cents or more.
The fact is you can get power for 23 cents / kWh Peak and 16 cents / kWh of peak. So it pays to change. You need to look around.