Batteries failed on day one
By
Joanne Nova
|
June 28th, 2026
https://anero.id/energy/2026/june/21By Jo Nova
The high pressure cell that burned the electricity bill
Wind power suffered a crippling failure in South Australia. It was providing 2 Gigawatts, or 100% of the state’s power on Friday June 19th, but by Sunday, the High had arrived and wind generation had collapsed to 0%. Worse, it stayed near there for the next three days.
The big beautiful batteries failed on the first day and prices took off accordingly. Only half the batteries were still there in the first big price spike of the first day, but on Sunday night and Monday morning, when prices hit $20,000 per megawatt-hour, they had nothing left to offer.
Paul McArdle calculates that the four day wind drought in South Australia was the worst since at least 2019. We might wonder if there were worse ones in the naughies or the 1990s, but back then no one gave a toss. There were no price spikes on windless days when the nation ran on coal power.
https://www.cfact.org/2026/06/28/batteries-failed-on-day-one/
