Mixture of Power Sources

Electricity is fundamental to the operation of modern society. Without access to continuous electrical power, water and gas cannot be distributed, most home appliances won’t work, manufacturing and office equipment stop operating, essential public transport is inoperable, and commerce and industry becomes rudimentary and inefficient. Without electricity, today’s lifestyle would revert to that of the 18th Century.

The lack of available electricity is one of the main reasons that so many of the world’s population live in poverty.

Electricity is unique amongst the energy commodities in that it cannot be readily stored. Secure supply of electricity requires a large and complex infrastructure of base load, intermediate and peak load generators, as well as transmission and distribution facilities. The foundation of this system is the base load electricity generators, which in Australia, supply more than 85% of the power consumed.

By sourcing base load power from the vast, low cost brown coal resources of the Latrobe Valley, Australian industry and consumers have benefited from some of the lowest cost electricity available in any developed country. It is a key challenge to continue to provide this affordable, on demand power while reducing the global environmental impact.

While conventional renewable energy systems (eg. wind, solar) can play a useful part in supplementing energy supply, they cannot economically provide Australia’s essential base load either now or in the foreseeable future. Indeed, it is the very availability of such a reliable base load supply which enables renewables to operate, providing continuous back up power when renewables’ energy sources are intermittent or unavailable.

While natural gas is likely to provide the necessary supplement to domestic power supplies in the near term, Monash Energy will be  helping to develop the technologies for a new class of low emissions, IGCC, base load power plants, so that Victorians can still enjoy affordable, on demand, electricity to maintain their quality of life.