Are gas peaking plants really needed to top up supply when solar or wind or both occasionally dip below demand? Previously, fossil fuel brigade always wanted gas peaker plants close to demand locations but suffered the wrath of NIMBYS every time they tried. The Finkel report encourages storage but fossil fuel bigots interpret that commercial wind and solar need to include storage, at remote site.  They insist that power out of coal fired, steam powered plants is always perfect, disregarding that they can get seriously out of synch when big enough transients are felt back at source because they’re too slow to respond. Where dips and surges happen is out on the poles and wires, so doesn’t it make sense to put storage out there, especially with technology fast enough to repair 50Hz power on the fly, so that minor transients don’t become major.

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