The disaster began with a low-pressure system building in the Great Australian Bight.
asserted
system → begin → Bight
When it tore across South Australia on September 28, 2016, it unleashed havoc that no one had anticipated.
asserted
one → tear → that
A string of supercell thunderstorms not only dumped sheets of hail and rain, but tornadoes unspooled from their vast bellies.
asserted
string → dump → bellies
One carved through Wilmington, a town on the route between Adelaide and Port Augusta.
asserted
One → carve → Adelaide
It tore down gum trees and collapsed a farm shed.
asserted
It → tear → shed
More crucially, it demolished five transmission towers and cut critical transmission lines.
asserted
it → demolish → lines
Almost 20 more of these steel giants soon went down across the state.
asserted
more → go → state
Over 80,000 lightning strikes were recorded.
asserted
strikes → record → ?
By around 3.50pm, South Australia was effectively isolated from the rest of the grid and out of power.
asserted
Australia → isolate → power
For some the power was back up within 8 hours, but for others it would take days.
asserted
it → take → days
At the Flinders Medical Centre, a diesel back-up failed and 17 intensive care patients had to be moved.
asserted
patients → fail → Centre
Embryos at a fertility clinic were lost and the contents of a zinc smelter at Port Pirie cooled and solidified.
asserted
contents → lose → Pirie
Before the rain stopped falling, the blackout was fodder for Australia’s unceasing culture war over climate and energy policy, with Barnaby Joyce and then-SA Independent Senator Nick Xenophon at once blaming intermittent wind power for the blackout.
asserted
Joyce → stop → blackout
SA’s then-premier, Jay Weatherill, pushed back.
asserted
premier → push → ?
“For people to be saying those things without being actually appraised of all the facts demonstrates that people are using this to play politics, instead of responding to what is a state emergency,” he said that night.
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he → say → politics
Later he would make the case that storms, not the state’s rapid deployment renewables, caused the blackouts.
asserted
storms → make → blackouts
Over the following days the disaster became something like a policy Rorschach test.
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disaster → follow → test
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg blamed over-reliance on renewables in SA, since some wind farms had automatically shut down to protect themselves once the transmission lines went down.
asserted
lines → blame → themselves
One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts called for all Australian governments to “exit all climate change policies.”
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governments → call → policies
The political combat dragged on over coming months, as heatwaves rolled across the continent and fears of shortages grew.
asserted
fears → drag → shortages
Then in March 2017 Lyndon Rive, Tesla’s vice-president for energy products, at the time visiting Australia, boasted that his company could alleviate SA’s immediate problems by building a giant battery, and it could do so within 100 days of signing a contract for less than $100 million.
uncertain
it → visit → million
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes saw the boast reported in the Australian Financial Review and addressed a tweet directly to Tesla’s boss, Elon Musk.
asserted
Brookes → see → boss
“”Holy s#%t”, he wrote.
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he → write → s#%t
If I can make the $ happen (& politics), can you guarantee the 100MW in 100 days?”
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you → make → days
Musk took up the challenge.
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Musk → take → challenge
“Tesla will get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free.
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it → get → signature
That serious enough for you?” he replied.
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he → reply → you
In the end, the battery was built in 63 days from the signing of the contract, and the consequences of the challenge are hard to exaggerate.
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consequences → build → challenge
At the time, any grid-scale power infrastructure took years of planning and then years of construction, and cost eye-bleeding sums, but in 2017 the cost of batteries had started to fall after Tesla’s completion of its vast $US5 billion Gigafactory in Nevada.
asserted
cost → take → Nevada
A big battery of the sort Musk was proposing is basically a bunch of car batteries strung together.
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Musk → propose → batteries
What is now known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve proved that grid infrastructure could now be made from off-the-shelf parts at speeds previously unimaginable.
uncertain
infrastructure → know → speeds
Jean-Christophe Cheylus, chief executive of Neoen Australia and New Zealand, the French-based renewables company which built and operates Hornsdale, said the speed of the project depended on the “perfect alignment of many planets”.
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speed → base → planets
Neoen happened to have a spare main transformer – a piece of kit that can take months to secure – in Australia at the time, the SA government issued planning approvals at high-speed and federal regulatory agencies backed the scheme.
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agencies → happen → scheme
Having been spurred into action by a bet, Elon Musk flew Telsa packs to Australia rather than waiting on shipping.
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Musk → spur → shipping
“Everyone was very, very curious and willing to do it because it was a world first,” said Cheylus.
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Cheylus → do → it
Following testing, the Hornsdale big battery was officially opened next to a wind farm 200kms north of Adelaide on December 1, 2017.
asserted
battery → follow → December
With a capacity of 100 MW it was around three times the size of any other lithium-ion battery installation operating in the world at the time.
asserted
it → operate → time
Soon after the battery began operating, other benefits became clear too, explains the Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood.
asserted
Wood → begin → ?
Like other storage technologies, it can soak up cheap energy during the day when renewables are abundant and sell it back into the grid during the evening peak – but Hornsdale could do far more than that.
uncertain
Hornsdale → soak → that
Traditionally coal and gas fired power stations have not only made power, but help stabilise the frequency of electricity streaming through a grid with their vast spinning turbines.
asserted
stations → fire → turbines
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
