Large corporations in Japan have been ordered to cut their peak electricity load by 15%, and small and medium corporations and households have been asked to make the same level of cuts voluntarily. The entire Japanese car industry has switched its weekend to Thursday and Friday to help lower peak electricity.
Air conditioners across the country (which gets very hot and sticky in the summer) have been set at 28 degrees, which has meant shirtsleeves and no ties for Japanese businessman, normally the most conservative of dressers. Business people everywhere are sporting “Super Cool Biz” badges to show they have embraced the energy-saving mantra.
The effect has been dramatic. Peak electricity demand has dropped 30% compared to last summer. There is a real feeling of national solidarity as the company copes with the problems of reduced energy capacity.
How would Australia cope in similar circumstances? I was asked by a Japanese colleague to suggest what we might do if, say, some natural disaster took out a similar amount of our generating capacity.
My feeling is that Australia would cope rather well. Nearly 90% of our electricity generating capacity is covered by the National Electricity Market (NEM), which covers all of Australia except Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Capacity can be switched around the NEM, so a local problem would allow a national response. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), which manages the NEM, would be able to apply and enforce any rules it deemed suitable, including mandating the sorts of cuts that have been made in Japan.
I believe Australian consumers would also embrace voluntary cuts. When faced with a crisis or a national call to action, Australians respond well – the Sydney Olympics were a triumph of organisation. Daylight saving time was extended, Sydney’s traffic patterns were altered, and the population made a genuine effort to make things happen. Australians can be a cynical lot, and we certainly lack the social cohesion of Japan, which is one of the world’s most homogenous societies, but we also have a community spirit that is missing in fragmented societies like the USA and the United Kingdom.
Cutting 15% off Australia’s peak load would be relatively easy to implement and enforce. We have the regulatory framework, the infrastructure, and under appropriate circumstances we would have the national will. It is unlikely a tsunami will roll up the Hunter Valley, or an earthquake shatter the vast brown coal generators of Gippsland, but if that were to happen I’m sure we’d cope.
The real challenge, which we are facing right now, is how we deal with incremental change. Australia will have to wean itself off coal generation at some time in the future. We are making half-hearted moves in that direction, but in the absence of a compelling event our efforts are feeble. Perhaps we need something like the scale of the Japanese emergency to force us to act.
