Newsletter #20 - Mothers Day Edition
To all the Mum’s out there HAPPY MOTHERS DAY ! You probably don’t get the recognition you deserve for 364 days a year but today’s the day you’re hopefully getting spoiled rotten.
If there are any Mothers reading this with Kids working at EnergyCo, hopefully you are able to get over the disappointment of your son or daughter's career choices for the day. Please take a day off from worrying about their loss of moral compass and the ethical issues that they should be struggling with.
To those Mums, here’s a joke that might put a smile on your face.
Some EnergyCo employees (Doug & Phil) are having drinks after work.
Phil : "So, what do you tell your mum you do these days?"
Doug: sighs "I tell her I'm a drug dealer."
Phil: "Wait, what?! Why?!"
Doug: "Because I don’t want to disappoint her by telling her I work at EnergyCo."
Here’s a quick update of what Valley Alliance has been up to on your behalf since the last newsletter.
Chaffey Aerial firebomber access :
We met with EnergyCo (EC) onsite at Chaffey last Thursday. NEREZ project director Doug Parris and a very large entourage met with us to update us on the expected changes
EC acknowledged that changes had to be made ( as per previous communication from them). It appears they have 3 options for the move. 2 North of the dam and 1 south of the dam.
They WILL NOT tell us where they are thinking of moving the lines to. The reason for this is that they don't want to upset people unnecessarily. The point was made by VA that they are now worrying the WHOLE community not just people along the routes.
VA continues to assert that the BEST OPTION is still the TSR for an aboveground project. It’s shorter , lower bushfire risk and physically impacts less people.
We will continue to push EC for details and will keep you updated. The likely northern route options are from Woolomin to Piallamore.
TSR Update
EC have followed up on our request to reassess the TSR . We have only just received the report and will analyse the results. The SHORT answer is that it continues to be a NON STARTER , EVEN though :-
there are LESS houses visually impacted within a 2KM band from the transmission corridor
The TSR is acknowledged as a better bushfire alternative
The TSR is acknowledged as less impact on aerial fire fighting
The TSR is shorter and therefore it will be cheaper
Are you getting a feeling that EC and the state government are not really interested in doing what’s best for the community???
UNDERGROUNDING
We have continued discussions with Syncline Energy about our project . We are discussing the potential for Syncline to do a report regarding undergrounding feasibility for the NEREZ. The report will be funded with other groups along the line (contributors still being discussed).
Note about undergrounding. The lines that we are proposing to EC are DC (Not AC as currently used in NSW). DC has lower transmission losses over longer distances than AC. Technological advances have allowed DC to become the primary choice for long distance transmission around the world. Unfortunately NSW has not moved with the rest of the world and is NOT considering DC as an option. The lack of knowledge within EnergyCo about this astounds us. In conversation with EC it is clear within seconds that they have ZERO interest in investigating better technology and cheaper options. It is bureaucracy at it’s worst
An absurd climate change fact: Spain and Portugal were recently blacked out due to a failure in the country’s energy grid. It is the largest power outage in European history, affecting an estimated 55 million people. The cause of the blackout is still being investigated but is thought to be due to Spain’s very high proportion of renewables in the power system . The cause is thought to be related to 2 consecutive failures compounded by the lack of “inertia” that is not produced in renewable power (but is produced in power that is traditionally generated).
Have a great week ahead
We are stronger togerther