2 October 2007

Power Plant for Canberra

| Maelinar
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The ABC is reporting here that ACTEWAGL are looking at building a gas fired power plant to supply power to the new data centre. Gas is one of those products that is a non-renewable (well not easily) resource that isn’t naturally abundant in Canberra.

A greener and more sensible option would be to construct a dam (yes one of those god-forsaken things), and to harvest electricity for free from the ‘environmental flows’ that we need to release.

So, what suburb is going to form the power plant nimby protest organisation ?

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Id like to see some offshore wind turbines installed on the south coast somewhere to power it. Make the equivalent 40MW and just buy it off the grid in Canberra.

Gungahlin Al6:23 pm 02 Oct 07

Aw crap. Just paste it in:
“http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/you’re”

Gungahlin Al6:19 pm 02 Oct 07

Try the linky thing again:

Gungahlin Al6:17 pm 02 Oct 07

Mael: you’re wrong – your interpretation is incorrect and you’re in need of a re-read of your citation, as it does not support your usage at all.
A further citation back at you – same source:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/you're
There is no such push – there is just laziness.

@Gungahlin Al – take a read of http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/your

I consider my usage of ‘your’ in this sentence acceptable.

In the case of modern spelling, I am told that there is a push to replace the longer ‘you’re’ with the shorter ‘your’, so in some circles I’d be considered new age or neo-linguistic.

I would have thought that since we have no trouble releasing the environmental flows from the current dam(s), what we would need for that isn’t so much more dams, but rather turbines on all the dams that already exist. Does anyone know if ACTEW have plans to add a turbine during the size increase proposed for Cotter?

Interestingly the article about the data centre/powerstation in today’s Australian lists ACTEWAGL as a relatively minor partner in the project.

captainwhorebags4:33 pm 02 Oct 07

GA: I’m not sure that roof top PV can approach the efficiencies that a large scale gas plant can. The PV option does of course provide a greener power source, once the energy used in the production has been taken into account.

ACTEW can’t charge you for power you’re generating yourself though. Likewise, they can’t charge you for water you harvest from the roof and thus argue that taxpayer dollars should go to more water infrastructure because it’s more efficient than household harvesting.

Gungahlin Al4:15 pm 02 Oct 07

Part of an on-going ploy by ACTEWAGL to get the ACT Government (read: us) to stump for construction of a gas-fuelled powerplant (why when we could have PV on rooves everywhere?).

Mael: I get nasty quickly when I have to keep describing the difference between “your” (the possessive) and “you’re” (the abbreviation for “you are”… 🙂

Which begs the question, which will be built first? 🙂

The chicken (the power station), or the egg (the data centre)?

The whole point of building the power station (PS) is to provide a reliable source of emergency power for the new data centre (DC).

Actew have publicly stated that without the DC, the PS is not viable, and vice-versa.

By having the PS, the DC becomes cost-viable, because the proponents of the DC can sell it based on the high availability of power.

This gives them a competitive advantage, and the ability to charge higher-prices. These higher-prices can then be used to fund the PS.

captainwhorebags3:43 pm 02 Oct 07

Dante – a lot of data centre equipment (especially comms gear) can be ordered with a DC supply option. This is usually 48V DC, a common standard within telephone exchanges.

@Hairy Nosed Wombat – yes but that thread is about a data centre. This thread is about a power plant.

I’m afraid your on your own after this point as I get nasty quickly when I have to describe the difference between two distinctly separate objects.

I’m still waiting for data centres to change to 12v power… nearly every piece of PC equipment runs off pure 12v. If you were to run your data centre off 12v instead of stepping down 240 all the time, you’d save a heap on cooling and power costs in the data centre. Not only that, but you could submerge all of the servers in oil for liquid cooling and save even more electricity.

You might think someone like ACTEW might be keen to try some new power saving techniques…

hairy nosed wombat3:18 pm 02 Oct 07

Hmm. Considering the story Canberra a data hub target has this in the last sentance

Utility provider ActewAGL has also agreed to build facilities to power the site using gas piped from Bass Strait if power loads at the facility reach 40MW.

And these data centers are going to be built in Hume and Belconnen, then it makes sence that the power plant will be built in Hume (closest place in the ACT to Victoria) as it would cost so much more to lay a pipeline all the way from Hume to Belconnen.

I was reading just the other day that the current trend is for increased energy efficiency in data centres through naturally assisted cooling systems and virtual servers. Hopefully ACTEWAGL have updated their business case figures since they developed them a few years ago.

So, what suburb is going to form the power plant nimby protest organisation ?

Well, seeing as it is in Hume we can expect the Jerrabombera nimbies to be complaining again about the unfair treatment they get from the ACT.

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