From joannenova.com

By Jo Nova

It’s just another hiccup on the road to Utopia

Two years ago the Victorian government banned new houses adding a gas connection. The houses had to be built “all electric”. It’s all part of a smooth and efficient transition, the government said. (And you ‘vill save money whether you like it or not.*).

However the demand for electricity in some areas is so high that the voltage falls, and some householders can only use one hotplate on the stove at a time, or they can’t get the heat pump to work at all. And naturally, they can’t charge their electric vehicle. But it’s all for a good cause — pagan weather control.

Even the ABC can’t spin this:

Victorians transitioning from gas exacerbates growing problem of undervoltage

ABC News

• • • A network operator has warned a massive spike in power consumption from houses transitioning off gas has led to undervoltage.
    • It is causing some households to be unable to use car chargers, cooktops and heaters.

Do the maths: by their own numbers, that’s 300,000 incidents a year where appliances fail:

CitiPower said it had received about 1,000 voltage complaints in the past 12 months, and estimate that for every complaint there are 320 additional customers experiencing non-compliant voltages.

Undervoltage issues were occurring primarily in older areas of the network, such as inner city and older suburban Melbourne, and older urban areas of Ballarat, Geelong and Bendigo.

“…shortly after moving in, problems started. First, Ms Slako noticed she could only use one hotplate at a time on her induction cooktop. Then she found the microwave would not heat food at dinnertime, but would burn everything at other times.

This month, she discovered her split system would not heat the house.”

“There’s a sense of dread waiting for winter when I’m cold and the split system’s not heating reliably.

From next year existing houses won’t be able to replace their gas appliances anymore. (Better lock in that new gas system now while you still can, eh?)

In other news, thousands flee Victoria amid crime and bad governance.

h/t David B

*Savings, as calculated by our models, and not compared to actual  electricity costs of 1995.