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Victorian power crisis raise need for National Energy Summit and nuclear discussion to address grid vulnerabilities

David Littleproud advocates for nuclear, citing transmission line vulnerabilities. Urges National Energy Summit for diverse energy discussion. Criticises Labor's renewables push amid power crisis.

By news@gippsland - 14th February 2024 - Back to News

Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said Victoria's power crisis, leaving around 530,000 homes without power after six transmission towers near Geelong toppled to the ground in wild weather overnight, proves the need for a National Energy Summit and a broader discussion on nuclear power. Mr Littleproud said the broken transmission towers were a stark reminder of the difficulties in transmitting power from the regions to the cities but would become an even bigger problem under Labor's reckless race to 82 per cent renewables by 2030.

David Littleproud is advocating for nuclear inclusion in energy dialogue. Unacceptable power outage impact underscores need for reliability, opposing Labor's transmission focus

Transmission risks, nuclear solution

Mr Littleproud said, "If we don't put all options on the table, we will be left with an extra 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines, which, when there are storms, increases the risk of taking out more transmission lines, weakening our grid's reliability. That's a lot of transmission lines to get such an enormous amount of renewable energy from the regions to the cities. What has happened overnight shows the fragility of that model."

"If small scale nuclear plants were built where retiring coal fired power stations are now, you could minimise the need for new transmission lines, reducing the risk of these incidents. Why wouldn't we use some common sense, not just in the generation of energy, but by reducing the amount of transmission lines that we have, so we don't have this crisis again in Victoria?" he said.

Renew energy dialogue

Mr Littleproud added, "Today, I urge the Prime Minister to once again reconsider my request when I first became Leader of The Nationals to call a National Energy Summit. The Nationals have called for this for more than 18 months."

"We need a sensible conversation about all the energy alternatives that are there, which includes putting nuclear power back on the table. Let's take away the nuclear energy ban and fight this out in the marketplace."

"To think we might now have up to 200,000 homes without power until Sunday isn't good enough. Victorian households and Australians deserve more than the chaos they are experiencing caused by the unreliability of power lines, which Labor now wants even more of," Mr Littleproud said.

Pictures from Gippsland FM Facebook page.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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