Australia’s biggest companies could be told to power down or power off completely in heatwave
SOME of Australia’s biggest companies could be told to power down or power off completely this weekend as the southeast of the country is hit by a heatwave.
SOME of Australia’s biggest companies, and biggest energy users, could be told to power off this weekend as the southeast of the country is hit by a heatwave.
The Australian reports the high temperatures expected in parts of NSW, Victoria and South Australia could put power supplies under considerable pressure.
As a result big energy users such as BlueScope Steel, Australian Paper and Visy could be hit with requests from authorities to power down over the weekend.
This weekend is tipped to bring an intense heatwave across most of the country as hot and dry air moves across southern Australia, with the mercury tipped to soar past 40C in a number of regions.
Victoria and South Australia are tipped to cop the brunt of extreme heat tomorrow, with catastrophic and severe fire danger predicted in certain areas across the states.
Melbourne and Adelaide will all soar over 40C tomorrow, while western Sydney will sweat up into the mid 40s.
The power off move is part of an Australian Energy Market Operator scheme aimed at shoring up energy reserves during peak summer periods. As part of the program large-scale companies that soak up considerable reserves of power can be asked to cut back energy use or even power off during summer heatwaves.
Those participating in the program are paid incentives to reduce their power use at peak summer usage times.
Alternatively large power producers are offered incentives to power up extra generators to meet increased demand.
The Australian Energy Market Operator said the program would be enough to ensure the lights and airconditioners stayed on across southeastern Australia during summer heatwaves.
“AEMO has entered into agreements with some providers and continues to have discussion with others to secure a total of 1150MW of strategic reserves across Victoria and South Australia that we can call on in emergencies (such as) multi-day heatwave events,” a statement from the company read.
“These reserves have been procured for all or part of summer 2017-18 and the actual amount of reserve available on any particular day depends on a number of factors including the characteristics of the reserve, which differs for each reserve.”