Power restored in Victorian homes after grid failed in record heat
Power has been restored to Melbourne homes after more than 3000 were still without power last night, when Victoria’s ageing energy network failed to cope with the blistering heat.
VIC News
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Power was cut to more than 200,000 homes and businesses yesterday after Victoria’s ageing energy network failed to cope with a blistering heatwave.
As Melbourne sweated through its hottest day in five years, families across the city had their electricity switched off, leaving them in the dark and without airconditioning as the temperature soared on Friday.
A State Control Centre spokesman said more than 3200 homes were still without power just before 11pm last night.
As of 9am Saturday, that number had reduced dramatically.
AusNet had 6 customers without power, United Energy 4, Powercor 2 and CitiPower 2. Jemena had no outages.
The city peaked at 42.8C and weather records were smashed across the state, with Swan Hill baking in 47.5C heat.
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Suburbs across Melbourne and Geelong were forced into “rotating brownouts” between noon and 3pm, powering down thousands of homes at a time for an hour or two hours.
A State Control Centre spokesman said more than 3200 homes were still without power just before 11pm last night.
As of 9am Saturday, that number had reduced dramatically. AusNet had 6 customers without power, United Energy 4, Powercor 2 and CitiPower 2. Jemena had no outages.
On Friday morning, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio stressed there would be no blackouts. “We shouldn’t be talking about blackouts at all. Blackouts are something that will absolutely not be a feature of today, or a possibility,” she said.
But the failure of several units at the Yallourn and Loy Yang coal-fired power stations pushed the network to its limit and Ms D’Ambrosio was forced to backtrack, saying the state had a 20th century power system for a 21st century climate.
A fifth of Victoria’s typical power supply was offline during Friday’s heatwave after unit failures at coal-fired power stations.
The technical dramas at the ageing generators meant the energy market operator was forced to briefly cut power to tens of thousands of homes in order to prevent widespread blackouts.
As the network was pushed to its limit, Victoria was importing the maximum amount of power from NSW, South Australia and Tasmania, while energy-intensive businesses including the Alcoa smelter powered down.
Authorities fear the energy nightmare could repeat this summer during heatwaves across southeastern Australia.
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien lashed out after the rolling brownouts, saying Victoria was “not a Third World country” and that “we deserve a safe and reliable power grid”.
The risk is expected to be reduced by next summer, with about 1900MW of extra power coming online from new large-scale wind and solar projects.
But the Australian Energy Market Operator has warned shortfalls could increase over the next decade if extra generation is not brought into the market to replace coal-fired stations when they close.
AEMO chief Audrey Zibelman said “multi-state peaks” would continue this summer, placing intense pressure on coal-fired power stations.
“The additional heat is stressing the generators … We maxed out what we could get into the market,” she said.
“We would very much like to see … a permanent strategic reserve that allows us to deal with the fact that we have these hot weather conditions.”
Yallourn power station in the Latrobe Valley was only able to run at half capacity yesterday because of tube leaks and maintenance issues on two units.
At the same time, a tube leak at Loy Yang A power station forced another unit offline and Liddell power station in NSW — which contributes to Victoria’s energy needs during peak demand — also removed crucial supply.
Ms D’Ambrosio said ageing coal-fired stations were prone to faults and unfortunately the units affected would not be running until temperatures were cooler.
Victoria’s power grid has been stretched to capacity on hot days after the removal of Hazelwood power station in 2016, which could produce up to 20 per cent of the state’s needs when run at capacity.
Ms D’Ambrosio said the government was investing in new sources of energy.
She aid those affected on Friday were not entitled to compensation for the “minimal disruption and discomfort”, but authorities thanked Victorians for their patient and help in avoiding widespread blackouts.
Residents and business owners affected by power cuts in Melbourne yesterday say outages led to chaos and tension amid the crippling heat.
Shane Kinch, who owns Kinch Fine Foods in Caulfield North, said he had to turn hungry customers away during the lunch rush.
“We couldn’t serve them, we couldn’t give them food,” he said.
Mr Kinch said his cafe, which has an electronic ordering system, was thrown into chaos and he had to send his staff home.
“I’m not getting any money back, I had all the fridges go off,” he said.
Allison, 63, a regular at the cafe who only wanted to be known by her first name, said it was disappointing small business owners were being affected.
“When people’s livelihoods are being affected in this way, as opposed to a residential street, I think it’s quite a ridiculous argument,” she said.
Keith and Margaret Hodgkiss, who are visiting their son Paul in Caulfield, said they bunkered down when the power went out.
“Once they said it was 44, we both looked at one another and said we’re staying in, we’re not used to it.” Mrs Hodgkiss, 73, said.
Mr Hodgkiss, 72, said: “We didn’t expect power cuts really, in a nice warm country like this.”
Andrea Firehock, 42, considered taking her 10-week-old daughter to a nearby hospital with airconditioning when power was cut to her Lower Templestowe home.
“I went outside the moment it went off and the moment I stepped out she started crying,” she said.
“If she’s sleeping and overheating, that’s a massive risk.
“There was no airconditioning and no fan.”
Ms Firehock reported that temperatures in her kitchen and living room shot past 30C within half an hour of the power going off.
“I am really worried for future hot days,” Ms Firehock said.
“They always act like it’s a massive surprise that there will be more demand but there needs to be more considering and more planning.”
Yarrawonga’s Katrina Pickett, 74, said she also worried about her grandchildren and older friends with health conditions as she suffered through an hours-long outage and fears it will happen again.
“There are not many places to go to cool down in a country town,” she said.
Ms Pickett criticised the lack of communication from authorities, saying her internet access was hit by the power outage.
“They tell us to go to the website for more information but we don’t have Wi-Fi when the power is down,” Ms Pickett said.
Shayne Lee, from Malvern East, had less than five minutes notice that he would lose power just after 1pm.
“We were watching the 24-hour news and they were talking about the power shortages and five minutes later, bang, everything went out,” he said.
“Even the traffic lights outside we off. It wasn’t much of a warning.”
Australian Diamonds netball coach Lisa Alexander cooled off in her pool after losing power at her Southbank home between noon and 2pm.
“We don’t normally lose power so it was a bit unusual,” she said.
“I went for a swim in our pool in our compound. That is how I kept cool, along with our neighbours.
“We haven’t got enough power, and that is a real issue.”
Ms Alexander said she was surprised by the brownout, first noticing when the power flicked off, and said people needed more warning to fill eskies or make other preparations.
“Just like people prepare for a bushfire,” she said.
DELAY THE WASHING, TURN UP AIRCON TO 24C
Power authorities called on Victorians to delay using dishwashers, washing machines and other appliances during peak.
About 9MW — the equivalent of two household’s energy use for a year — was saved on Thursday night when they powered down through Powershop’s Curb Your Power’s program.
But that, along with reserve supplies and power imported from other states, wasn’t enough to prevent the brownouts.
It sparked a warning Energy Safe Victoria for people to disconnect heating and cooking appliances, which risked starting a fire when power was restored.
Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive Audrey Zibelman said “load shedding” was a last resort.
“The first thing we do is go into the reserves,” she said.
“Once we exhaust the reserves, we really have to go into load shed to protect the system.”
The rolling brownouts were called off about 3pm, after a cool change swept Melbourne and power demand plummeted.
But outages caused by local faults also caused havoc continued across the state and continued on Friday afternoon.
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