Category: Archive

Expensive comfort: Turning on the air-conditioner on a hot day
can double the daily demand for electricity among those who have it
installed, says EnergyAustralia, while those without air-conditioning
on the same day will increase electricity use only slightly.

Trend increases risk of blackouts: On very hot days,
air-conditioner use contributes greatly to spikes in demand for
electricity which existing power stations will soon find it hard to
meet. If peak demand is too high, there could be blackouts – and
another blot on the Iemma Government’s reputation for competence. “No
wonder it is rushing to announce new power stations. But are they the
right ones?” said the article.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 9/12/2005, p. 14

Source: Erisk – www.erisk.net 

A sweetener for consumers is that any household which does suffer a
blackout not caused by a storm or
natural disaster will be eligible for a cashback of $320. Mr Iemma said
that his government is committed to providing NSW with uninterrupted
electricity “from power plant to power point”.

The overhaul is expected to take five years and guard NSW against the outages which plague other states.

Source: The Daily Telegraph, 7/12/05 

Mass protests increasingly common: The Age (12 December
2005, p.9) reported that earlier this year the Public Security (Police)
Minister, Zhou Yongkang, reported that the number of “mass protests”
had risen from about 10,000 in 1994 to “more than 74,000” in 2004.

The Age, 12/12/2005, p. 9

Source: Erisk – www.erisk.net 

Summer sea ice to disappear: The Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment, a vast scientific study which took four years to compile,
found that the region would warm by four to seven degrees Celsius by
the end of the century, with summer sea ice disappearing within 60
years.

US policies a major factor in changes: The petition, filed on
behalf of the ICC by the Center for International Environmental Law
(CIEL), said US policies on greenhouse gas emissions were a major
factor driving these changes.

World’s largest emitter: “The United States is the world’s
largest greenhouse gas emitter; it has turned its back on the Kyoto
Protocol and has not put in place measures to limit its emissions,”
said CIEL’s senior attorney, Donald Goldberg. “The Inuit are bearing
the brunt,” he said.

Declaration sought: The petition asks the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights to investigate the harm caused to Inuit by
global warming, and to declare the US “…in violation of rights
affirmed in the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of
Man and other instruments of international law.”

Mandatory limits also sought: It also urged the Commission to
rule that the US must adopt mandatory limits on greenhouse gas
emissions and “…help Inuit adapt to unavoidable impacts of climate
change.” If the Commission ruled in favour of the Inuit, it could refer
the US to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for a legal
judgement.

Any decision largely symbolic: Both the Commission and the Court
work within the framework of the American Convention on Human Rights.
As the US had not ratified the Convention, a ruling by the Commission
would be largely symbolic; but Donald Goldberg believed that did not
make it worthless.

Possible domestic mechanism within US: “If the Commission finds
the US has violated human rights, it’s a serious matter,” he said.
“States don’t like to be classified as violators of human rights; and
in any case, there is a domestic legal mechanism called the Alien Torts
Claims Act which might allow us to use a Commission judgement in
national litigation.”

Reference: Digest of latest news reported on website of Climate
Change Secretariat of United Nations Framework on Climate Change
Control (UNFCCC). 8 December. Address: PO Box 260 124, D-53153 Bonn.
Germany. Phone: : (49-228) 815-1005, Fax: (49-228) 815-1999. Email: press@unfccc.int
http://www.unfccc.int

Erisk Net, 12/12/2005

Breakdown of amounts claimed: A table in the application shows
the total is made up of $34.1 million in capital costs for network
planning, $74.6 million in capital costs for average and individual
feeder reliability, $23.3 million in operating costs for network
planning and $23.6 million in operating costs for average and
individual feeder reliability.

And, an extra $15.6 million to meet new service standards:
EnergyAustralia said it was also seeking a specific pass-through of the
$15.6 million of capital and operating costs arising from compliance
with the guaranteed customer service standards (GCSS) licence
conditions.

New licence conditions welcomed: In the executive summary of its
application, EnergyAustralia said it welcomed the new licence
conditions introduced by the NSW Minister for Energy and Utilities on
EnergyAustralia and the other NSW distribution network service
providers under Schedule 2 of the Electricity Supply Act 1995 . The conditions aimed to ensure a more reliable supply of electricity to the residents of NSW.

Extensive works required: The improvements in security and
reliability of supply reflected in the new licence conditions would
require extensive works, which were incremental to those contemplated
in IPART’s distribution pricing determination for 2004/05 to 2008/09.

Reference: Submission by EnergyAustralia to Independent Pricing and
Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) on pass-through application. 7 December,
Address: GPO Box 4009, Sydney. NSW 2001. Phone: (02) 8900 6978. IPART
address: Level 2, 44 Market Street, Sydney. NSW. 2000. PO Box Q290, QVB
Post Office, NSW. 1230. Phone: (02) 9290 8400. Fax: (02) 9290 2061.
http://www.energy.com.au
http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au

Erisk Net, 12/12/2005

Heads of agreements: Heads of agreements were due to be signed over the next few months with sales and purchase agreements to be negotiated by the end of 2006. These agreements will be conditional on a final investment decision by Woodside in 2007.

US talks: Woodside’s Pluto LNG Director, Lucio Della Martina, said discussions were also progressing with potential customers in the United States for additional Pluto volumes.

Pluto field: The Pluto LNG development was based on the Pluto discovery in permit WA-350-P, 190km northwest of Karratha. The field was discovered in April this year.

Erisk Net, 7/12/2005