It is obvious everywhere, except in the citadels of power, that Australia needs more reliable baseload power. With the population and the economy growing, but with electricity availability and reliability in decline, we are racing headlong into a brick wall of blackouts. Recession and disruption will probably follow, bringing to mind those memorable 1990 words of Prime Minister Paul Keating: ‘This is the recession we had to have’. Except in this case the recession will be self-inflicted. Much of my working life was in the steel industry in the 1970s and 1980s. It operated 24x7, with large numbers of electric motors requiring a continuous supply of low-cost electrical power. Unplanned interruptions were rare, but when they occurred they were very costly. Now we face the prospect of planned and unplanned loss of power due to the rundown of baseload power capacity. It must be a nightmare for today’s steelmakers and aluminium refineries facing this growing...(Read Full Post)