A South Australian manufacturing business reliant on wholesale electricity labels the national electricity market a 'failure' after standing down 170 employees due to unaffordable operating costs.
A South Australian manufacturing business reliant on wholesale electricity has labelled the national electricity market a "failure," after standing down 170 employees due to unaffordable operating costs.Intercast and Forge says a lack of clarity around how much wholesale electricity will cost has forced it to shut its operationsAEMO will review its decision daily
Mr Lawrence said soaring wholesale electricity prices had been a "nightmare" for the iron foundry, which accounts for about 1 per cent of South Australia's total electricity consumption per day when fully operational.It manages to keep its operations profitable by monitoring the spot market, in order to know when it's a cost-effective time to run machinery.
"We put in some software controls where we enter a price. When the price peaks above that we automatically turn off our furnaces and other equipment," Mr Lawrence said."The nature of the announcement from AEMO is that we don't know what the cost of [wholesale] electricity will be," Mr Lawrence said.