Re: Working wind turbines won't help...
@ Tannin
You would appear to be contradicting Jay Weatherill's claims that the wind farms were not shut down because it wasn't necessary. You would also appear to be agreeing with me when you state "why, given the known extreme weather on the way, was there no extra capacity on standby?"
You also state "And (b) why was it that two different large South Australian gas generators, both supposedly black-start-capable, were unable to restart in a timely manner and get the lights back on?" It would appear that SRAS1 start-up failed due to a software issue. I believe that both SRAS1 and SRAS2 are gas generators that take ~2 hr for a cold start. If the software glitch wasn't discovered until toward the end of start-up that would explain the initial delay.
I note that SRAS2 had been damaged by the storm and so was unavailable for the restart.
The ABC's Chris Uhlmann reported "At 6:36pm the operator was advised that the gas-fired turbines at Pelican Point could be ready in four hours." I would assume that this was because the generator is of an older design than SRAS1 and SRAS2.
We would both appear to question why this generator wasn't running before the storm (so to speak).
It would be nice to be able to write: "All will be revealed in the fullness of time", but I suspect there will be a lot of arse-covering.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
