Blind Fredrick can see the recent governments actions have in fact stalled price rises
Ignore it if you insist but prices are going down
Bills have always been high until end users make up their minds to do some thing about the way they use power
A house near me has even more solar panels than me
But it lights up the house indeed the whole block, all night
They no doubt blame the price of power for their waste of it
My bill has fallen but so has my use, do not go without just use my solar panel,s in the day for high use things

No Belly prices are not reducing. I took the fifty Victorian Dollars and they told me to change plans, I did. My bill has increased by another $25 a month, big saving eh?
I am not wasteful, as one of eight children we were schooled in turning off lights, putting on a jumper and not wasting food.
So you say we use less electricity so they can charge us more for what we get? Then when they start running out of electricity I will pay big rich companies to not use electricity? That will end in huge subsidies going to companies harvesting those subsidies, check out Ireland on that.
Belly you are now providing your own electricity, well done but wait until something goes wrong. The current crop of politicians, thieving electric companies and the Green idiots will let you reap what they have sown.
I am happy to let you pay but fiercely resent the extra costs for a substandard supply which will fail. Just wait and do not say you were not warned.

Aiden;
There is no point in just placing wind farms where the grid happens to be located.
The grid is where the coal fired stations needed it.
What is need is the grid where the wind farms would need to be.
That is where they can take advantage of different wind systems
patterns that arise both yearly and daily.
Australia might well be big enough to enable a 100% reliable system
but it will need the grid where the wind farms are located.
Re losses on the grid, can't remember where I saw the figures but for
the longest distance quoted it got up to 40%.
As I said the article did not mention any transmission voltages.
Five million volts is manageable, just needs longer insulators and
higher towers to get capacitive currents down.

Whoops, capacitive currents does not apply in DC systems but of course
there is a capacity between line and ground that has to be charged and discharged.

JBowyer,

Regarding the UK's chief scientist,you shouldn't declare someone guilty without evidence. Your supposition seems quite illogical (as the car companies didn't benefit that much) and you appear to be ignorant of Hanlon's Razor.

You are mistakenly blaming renewables for our high power prices, but there are much bigger factors involved including profiteering, the price of gas, and the way electricity users are (over)charged for the poles and wires. Going with more coal wouldn't make electricity cheaper; it would make electricity more expensive.

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JBowyet and Bazz,
Regarding transmission losses, you may be interested in http://www.ee.co.za/article/losses-costs-associated-hvdc-uhvdc-transmission-lines.html

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Bazz,
Of course wind farms need to be connected to the grid. But nobody's going to extend the grid hundreds (let alone thousands) of km just to connect a wind farm! Proximity to existing transmission lines is a major site selection criterion, and that's as it should be. Sure you could gain a technical advantage by locating a windfarm in a more remote location, but you could gain a bigger technical advantage at lower cost by using batteries.

Aiden the Chief Scientist actually admitted he had got diesel completely wrong and it should all be reversed and diesel made more expensive. This is after millions bought diesel cars. He admitted that he trusted the car company figures!
You have a real difficulty with the truth here. He lied, he never engaged "Peer review" which is mostly meaningless, with these frauds anyway. He never even attempted to find out what was what and now people who paid for his overblown salary and pension have to pay again.
Then the slimy toad accepts a knighthood as well and keeps it.
My point is these scientists are liars, thieves and cannot be trusted. This is a clear indication of how we are being conned by the whatever you call it this week? Global warming, climate change all total nonsense!