Aircon: 8000 Qld homes sweat as cooling cut off

Acting Premier Jarrod Bleijie says its unacceptable that thousands of sweltering Queenslanders had the cooling function on their airconditioners turned off remotely. SEE THE MAP

LNP Energy Minister David Janetzki says curtailing the strength of airconditioning in people’s homes is better than it being cut off completely.

• Editor’s view: Sure sign our grid is under pressure

Acting Premier Jarrod Bleijie has blasted state-owned energy retailer Energex for remotely turning airconditioners off to help manage soaring electricity demand during extreme weather, saying it was “unacceptable”.

More than 8000 Queensland households had the cooling function on their airconditioner turned off remotely by Energex on a sweltering Sunday earlier this month – the fifth Big Brother-style intervention of the year.

“It’s not a solution, and I’m not happy about it,” he said.

“I don’t think Queenslanders should expect an energy company to be able, at a flick of a switch, to turn people’s aircon for a few hours a day.

Acting Premier Jarrod Bleijie. Picture: Liam Kidston

“Queenslanders should be able to go home and turn their lights on at night time when they want they should be able to turn their air conditioner on in summer or the heater on in winter, without government and energy companies saying, we may have to turn your air conditioner off specifically so the grid doesn’t fail.

“It’s unacceptable.”

Mr Bleijie blamed the former Labor government for inefficiently managing the state’s energy assets.

He said the LNP’s introduction of a “maintenance guarantee” would address some issues, but a meeting with both energy providers would be held to ensure a “way forward in future where they don’t do this”.

“If you’re in Queensland, the asset should run, the grid should operate,” he said.

“I’ll be discussing that with the Energy Minister (and) talking to Ergon and Energex.”

The Energex logo.

In total, aircons have been automatically throttled back about 210,000 times in the Sunshine State so far in 2024 to ease pressure on the power grid, according to information obtained from the government-owned power company.

The most recent instance was during the early evening of December 8, when more than 8300 households across Logan and Ipswich had the compressors of their aircon disabled.

It coincided with a power outage that hit 25,000 properties, including 15,000 in Ipswich.

Energex was trying to manage surging electricity demand after temperatures reached as high as 36C.

The affected households were part of the PeakSmart “demand response” scheme.

They joined PeakSmart in return for a rebate of as much as $400 on purchasing an air conditioner. The quid pro quo was that a signal receiver was installed in the unit.

The receiver allows Energex or Ergon – depending on the location – to remotely control power supply to the air conditioner to cap its energy consumption during times of heavy demand.

Energex calls these times “PeakSmart events.”

The December 8 event was the most severe form of intervention, known as a “Demand Response Mode 1”.

During a DRM1, air conditioners in areas of high demand have their compressors turned off.

On December 8, in the Logan area, compressors were turned off for as long as six hours, from 6pm until midnight.

The most far-reaching PeakSmart events this year were on January 22 and 27. On both days, air conditioners in 100,000 households were capped at 50 per cent of their maximum consumption, in a DRM2 event.

How much control do you really have over the aircon remote?

The other PeakSmart event type is a DRM3, when an aircon’s consumption cannot exceed 75 per cent of its maximum. That was last used in 2017.

Nowhere else in the nation uses demand response as actively as southeast Queensland.

But other states are watching and preparing to follow suit.

In 2023, South Australia made it mandatory for new air conditioners to be enabled for demand response. But SA currently has no plan to send signals to the receivers to reduce the load on its grid.

PeakSmart was launched in 2012 under the Campbell Newman Liberal-National state government. The scheme was expanded by Labor.

More than 155,000 households now have PeakSmart appliances – a number growing by about 15,000 a year.

The area with by far the highest enrolments is Pimpama, where 3670 devices are connected.

New LNP Energy Minister David Janetzki suggested curtailing power was far better than having to cut it off altogether.

“Energex and Ergon Energy carefully manage electricity demand peaks for those who have opted into PeakSmart, to smooth the load and help prevent widespread outages,” Mr Janetzki said.

There hasn’t been a PeakSmart event in the Ergon distribution area this year.