A South Australian manufacturing business reliant on wholesale electricity has labelled the national electricity market a "failure," after standing down 170 employees due to unaffordable operating costs.Intercast and Forge says a lack of clarity around how much wholesale electricity will cost has forced it to shut its operationsAEMO will review its decision daily
Mr Lawrence said soaring wholesale electricity prices had been a "nightmare" for the iron foundry, which accounts for about 1 per cent of South Australia's total electricity consumption per day when fully operational.It manages to keep its operations profitable by monitoring the spot market, in order to know when it's a cost-effective time to run machinery.
"We put in some software controls where we enter a price. When the price peaks above that we automatically turn off our furnaces and other equipment," Mr Lawrence said."The nature of the announcement from AEMO is that we don't know what the cost of [wholesale] electricity will be," Mr Lawrence said.
So in all this time he didn't look into ways to be far more energy self-sufficient. Plenty of cheap and easy ways to go 'off-grid' here in Australia.
The next 3-6 years we are going to get this gaslighting (excuse the pun) from media about who can run the country better. In 4 weeks i can already tell
He needs to go down to Birkenhead cement and ask how do they avoid blackouts . I must be on the same sub station as we only have incidental blackouts over 30 years
But hang on, SA is almost fully renewables, and they have a big battery so why are you turning off the plant? Oh I see, you need reliable & constant power, and BIG BATT only gives you 8 minutes MAX. Geez, you got conned. Sue the government and the Greens for deceptive conduct
Move operation to WA
The results of believing windmills and magnifying glasses will power a whole economy
STomevska sarahmullins Intercast should ask for compensation from the LiberalAus Liberal Party. Otherwise politicians will not LEARN that they have REAL responsibility
Hint: it's not an 'energy market' failure. Lose the quotes on failure, though. It certainly is that.
Part of the plan for SME and small business. UBI for all soon.
And now everyone is going to blame a federal government that has been in power for a month.
This is the great new green world of renewables. Fucking get used to it.
Thanks to labour and their union buddies
This is totally embarrassing considering the alternative is imports from China where new coal fired power stations are being built and there are no restrictions on energy use. Australias naive push for unsustainable emmission reductions has caused this farce.
Lnp was voted into power in 2013 ,they were in power till 3 weeks ago !
I really don't understand why business don't have their entire roof covered in solar panels ... could probably even claim it on tax ...
If there was just a government in the past ten years that had any clue about anything
Bloody Labour Party
Great for climate change! Now we can ship our iron ore over to China, and have it smelted with little to no environmental controls, and then ship it back...
The start of the deindustrialisation of Australia thanks to intermittent renewables that are no where near enough. Bluescope, Onesteel and Tomago Aluminum will be next.
A company that has been maximising profits for years buying on the spot energy market can't operate for a week on raised prices caused by Russia invading Ukraine! That's the headline!
I'd expect this from a 3rd world country, not Australia.
'Intercast and Forge' also has (or had) a Demand-Response contract, under which it is paid to curtail electricity consumption at times when the AEMO market has supply shortages STomevska. energy DemandResponse
Can’t say that he wasn’t prepared for chickens coming home to roost.
😭…, poor things - ask them who they voted for over the last 9 years…! Oh yeah, the mob that failed to address the energy market with any sort of strategy! Cry me a river…, somewhere else… auspol
Well done AngusTaylorMP
Just like the LNP, sat and twiddled his thumbs for a decade.
9 years for the LNP to get this right. Fail.
All going according to plan.
Just Greta dumb 🤦 Western elites were in the grip of an ideology that made them incapable of understanding the hard realities of energy production. China’s Xi and Russia’s Putin took advantage of the delusions of the decadent West, and now we are all paying the price.
Isn't South Australia the great renewables market?