Aidan,

Trying to blame this on privatisation is silly. A privatised power company owns, manages and maintains the power lines in return for legislated fees that it can charge customers.

To cover the cost of new infrastructure, the government has to allow fees to rise, which they had yet to do.

SM: So while renewables didn't directly cause the blackout, if money had been spent where it should have on the interconnection rather on renewables, then SA would not have had a complete shut down courtesy of Labor.

I have no problem with that. In fact I completely agree with you there. It's got nothing to do with Renewables. It is entirely to do with State Planning over the past 75 years by successive Governments.

SM: courtesy of Labor.

Courtesy of what ever Government is in power when shy-it happens.

On the matter of the Transmission lines. What Government was in Power when the Lines were planed? What Government was in power when they were built? Governments change. Who built them? What wind speeds were they designed for? Was the material used in the Construction up to design specifications? Technical stuff that should be looked at due to the collapse at such low wind speeds.

I mowed my yard in 75kph wind speeds & thought nothing of it. I come from North Queensland (Ayr) Cyclones are a bit of a yawn in that part of the World. It's the Media beat up that makes them look bad.

Those Transmission Lines Towers should never have collapsed at the wind speeds recorded in SA during those storms. Something has to be wrong with the Specs for the Towers or their Maintenance. If there is the problem lies with the Maintenance crew & their Company Managers.

Yes there should have been a redundancy Transmission Route. Back sides need to be kicked for that going back at least 75 years.

ttbn,
"I live in Adelaide,"
As do I.

"and know where the power comes from."
Except that you've just proved you didn't!

You unwittingly told a lie, in an attempt to rubbish what I was saying. When I explained the facts, you proved yourself too stupid to admit that you were wrong!

And I didn't even mention the "piddling little extra stations" such as the one at the Coopers Brewery. The smallest one I listed, Ladbroke Grove has a capacity of 80MW, making a significant contribution to meeting SA's demand (which on a weekday is usually between 1 and 2GW). And together the the Torrens Island power stations have over three times the capacity of Pelican Point, though Torrens Island A has been offline for a while, and would've been mothballed had Port Augusta's coal fired ones not closed.

"I don't have to rely on Murdoch or any other totally wrong source,"
So where did you get your incorrect claim from?

"as you do."
On the contrary, I try to get information from multiple sources, and try to understand not only the figures but the reasons behind them and the relationship between inputs and outputs. Whereas you seem to take the Ancient Greek approach to facts – once you decide something is true, you stop questioning it. Worse still you ignore the evidence you subsequently see, and assume everyone who disagrees does so from ignorance.

And the stuff about government borrowing was no exception. Like you I once accepted that government borrowing was limited, they must eventually eliminate their debt, and that borrowing directly from the central bank could cause hyperinflation. But unlike you I questioned those conclusions, and discovered that there was no real evidence for any of those things, and their theoretical basis depended on demonstrably false assumptions.

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Shadow,

The problem is there was privatisation without proper competition. Infrastructure companies are already allowed to charge far too much, and will continue to underinvest unless they're allowed to charge even more.

From reports I have seen, there was significant output from the wind turbines.
When the towers went over it seems that something else happened in Adelaide.
Was there no output from the wind turbines ? Why not ?
Whatever it was more load was put onto the interconnector which
exceeded the maximum and it was tripped off.
Was there any generation north of where the towers fell over ?
Were the towers all on the one line feeding north ?
Seems like none of us has a map of the layout of the grid and a plot
where the towers fell over.

In any case the failure finally occurred because too much load was diverted onto the interconnector.
SA depends on coal power from Victoria to keep the show on the road.
That seems to be a contradiction of their policy.

Aidan,

I think you have entirely misunderstood the process of privatisation of monopoly infrastructure. The state sets the price of the power and the company makes its money from maintaining the existing lines to set standard at a cost less than the income. The cost of new infrastructure is either funded directly by the government or by an increase in fees.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/nick-cater/weatherills-green-ambition-puts-sa-in-the-dark-ages/news-story/967b0a585d40dfdc77825c8a01e25eea

"A sobering report from Del­oitte’s last year noted the irony: “Renewable generation is already challenging the sustainability of the South Australian system.” Adding more renewable capacity, it said, would destabilise the system further."

"Which raises the question: why would anybody invest in South Australia, except out of sympathy? The state’s extraordinary economic growth in the 1950s and 60s that produced jobs, built homes and bought cars was driven by cheap, reliable energy. Who would risk entrepreneurial capital in Weatherill’s energy-deficient jurisdiction? Even basketweavers need a reliable source of light."

"The same challenge is facing Europe, where a rapid growth in renewable energy in Germany has thrown the energy market out of whack. Last year Germany opened a new coal-fired power station, much to the distress of the Greens. Upgrading cross-border supply across northern Europe is a priority; how else is Germany going to be able to suck up French nuclear power, the production of which is banned within its own borders? The cost of bringing the entire European network up to scratch could cost as much as $500 billion."

Aidan,

Bless you. You make up for my longtime inability to catch fish; one flick of the rod, you take the bait, and come up with yards of bumf from Wikipedia. You might even be putting the stuff there yourself, Wik being open to anyone.

You are also an Adelaidean: so it is possible that it was you I heard on talkback radio, propounding your lunatic theory of borrowing to a gullible fill in for Leon Byner. I would love to hear you trying such rubbish on the man himself.