A summer of blackouts has emerged as a real risk of Australia’s creaking power system, increasing the likelihood of extra government intervention in a desperate bid to close the gap between the reality of the faltering energy transition and the ambition of 2030 climate targets.

The return to El Nino summer conditions, a power supply system strained by reduced and increasingly unreliable coal power generation, an overstretched transmission system and a slow build-out of renewable energy and the firming generation to support it prompted experts to warn it was time for householders to “get your candles”.