AEMO taps emergency energy powers after a unit at AGL’s Liddell coal-fired power plant fails
South Australia has been hit by a major electricity blackout after a severe heatwave buckled local poles and wires networks.
South Australia has been hit by a major electricity blackout with more than 20,000 households to endure a night without power after a severe heatwave buckled local poles and wires networks and stretched the state’s grid to breaking point.
Power was knocked out from 90 ‘poles and wires’ transformers on local streets after electric fuses shut down due to record temperatures with more than 21,000 homes losing access to electricity, SA Power Networks confirmed.
“There are a large number of people without power throughout the night,” SA Power Networks spokesman Paul Roberts told The Australian. “These are record temperatures and power equipment like human beings is very vulnerable at times like these.”
The fresh power crisis comes just over two years after the entire state was plunged into darkness when powerful storms knocked out 22 power pylons which triggered a shutdown in the electricity network.
Searing heat caused chaos across Australia’s fragile power market today as demand outstripped supply, forcing the market operator to order Victoria’s largest electricity user to cut its power use tonight to help balance the power system.
Adelaide hit a new record of 46.6 degrees on Thursday afternoon while Melbourne topped 40 degrees, ratcheting up demand on the power system. The South Australian towns of Whyalla, Wudinna and Tarcoola were all forecast to reach 48C today, with towns in Victoria’s northwest headed for 46C tomorrow.
The state’s Portland aluminium smelter run by Alcoa was told to lower its power use between 7.10pm and 8.50pm east coast time to help secure the power system after earlier agreeing to free up 400 megawatts of supply to dodge enforced electricity cuts.
Earlier, AEMO chief executive Audrey Zibelman said the market operator had called on 400 megawatts of additional energy reserves involving contributions from both commercial and residential customers who had been contracted by AEMO as a hot weather contingency.
A combination of extreme weather and faulty power plants saw the market operator ask customers in the two states to cut their power usage in a process called ‘load shedding’ to help ease pressure on the grid and keep the lights on.
Consumers were also asked to avoid using dishwashers, washing machines and pool pumps during peak times and lower their blinds before going to work to cool houses and lower demand.
Spot power prices in Victoria soared to $14444 a megawatt hour on Thursday night with South Australia spot trading even higher at the maximum of $14500 a MWh, AEMO data shows, compared with average prices of about $100 a MWh.
Prices in both states are forecast to remain at the maximum of $14500 a MWh until Saturday.
South Australia’s controversial diesel generators - introduced by former Premier Jay Weatherill as a response to the state’s 2016 blackout - were also called on for the first time. Power was initially sent to supply-short Victoria, as the grid struggled to cope following the loss of over 1500 megawatts of baseload coal and gas generation from some of the nation’s largest suppliers this week.
The state’s Whyalla steelworks owned by billionaire Sanjeev Gupta also cut its consumption today to help support the system, a spokeswoman confirmed.
In South Australia - which typically relies on renewables for half its power needs - wind supplied less than 4 per cent of the state’s electricity today. Gas generators did the heavy lifting accounting for 82 per cent of generation with diesel also chipping in part of the balance.
Victoria was in a similar position with wind supplying 3.8 per cent of the state’s requirements as brown coal, gas and hydro were deployed to meet rising demand.
The decision to invoke load shedding marked an abrupt turnaround after Ms Zibelman had earlier said she expected there were sufficient reserves to get through the peak period.
“At this point we’re in a position where we anticipate we have enough resources to get us through the peak,” Ms Zibelman said this afternoon.
However, AEMO was forced into the measure several hours later as a result of a shortfall of available generation reserves.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan said more needed to be done to ensure reliable power.
“The circumstances of the last fortnight have underlined the need for investment in new, reliable power sources,” Mr Canavan told The Australian. “We have an ageing thermal power fleet in South Australia at the same time as very tight market conditions across the grid.”
Ms Zibelman said AEMO did not anticipate blackouts tomorrow, with a cool change expected to cross South Australia, reaching Melbourne about 3pm.
“We’re not expecting blackouts and we’re not yet expecting to call on reserves. We’ll re-evaluate that again in the morning,” Ms Zibelman said.
Earlier on Thursday the grid suffered a fresh setback after the failure of a unit at AGL’s Liddell coal-fired power plant in NSW, marking the fourth major generator unable to supply full capacity to electricity users.
The lost output from three ageing coal plants and a major gas generator during one of the tightest supply-demand periods of the summer underlines the fragility of the grid despite vast volumes of renewables boosting output over the last few years.
In addition to Liddell’s outage, a 560 megawatt unit from AGL’s Loy Yang A coal station in the Latrobe Valley was knocked out of action on Tuesday due to a tube leak with repairs likely to take about three days.
At Victoria’s nearby Yallourn coal-fired power station a 370 megawatt unit was also out of action due to regular maintenance cutting a quarter of the facility’s 1480 megawatt load. Owner EnergyAustralia said the works on the facility could not wait and it expects the unit back up and running next week.
The energy operator’s 435 megawatt Tallawarra gas-fired unit in NSW also dropped out of service on January 17 due to a rupture in a cooling pipe and the company has yet to outline when it will resume operations.
