South Australia blackout: Jay Weatherill resists calls for inquiry

The Premier insists a statewide power failure was not linked to SA’s high renewable energy use.

Traffic in total darkness around the CBD in Adelaide. Picture; AAP.

South Australia will review the events that led to the state’s big blackout but Premier Jay Weatherill is resisting calls for an independent inquiry, AAP reports.

He says a catastrophic weather event that brought down transmission towers in the north caused the statewide power failure and was not linked to SA’s high use of renewable energy.

No energy system in the world would have been able to cope with the severe winds that tore towers from the ground and brought down high transmission lines, but he said the government would review what happened to see what could be learned from the experience.

“Of course there will be elements that did not work perfectly and we’ll review each of those things,” he said.

The Australian energy market regulator would also conduct a technical review to establish the sequence of events, and federal, state and territory energy ministers would meet to thrash over what happened to send SA dark. Transmission company ElectraNet, which operates the damaged infrastructure, has also indicated it will look at what could be done to avoid a repeat of the crisis.

But the South Australian opposition says and independent investigation must begin immediately.

“The situation that occurred yesterday was totally unacceptable and we need to ensure it does not happen again,” Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said. “The independent inquiry into the unprecedented statewide blackout should investigate, among other matters, the lack of baseload power generation in South Australia.” Independent Senator Nick Xenophon described the situation as a disgrace and also called for an investigation.

“This is unprecedented in this nation. We need answers,” Senator Xenophon said.

‘Don’t play politics on renewables’

Malcolm Turnbull has blasted state Labor governments for imposing “ideological” renewable energy targets, describing the South Australian blackout as a “wake-up call” to focus on energy security.

The Prime Minister accepted fierce winds and lightning strikes were the “immediate cause” of the statewide power failure, but there was “no doubt” that the “extremely aggressive” shift to renewables had strained the electricity network.

“I regret to say that a number of the state Labor governments have over the years set priorities and renewable targets that are extremely aggressive, extremely unrealistic, and have paid little or no attention to energy security,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Launceston.

“Energy security should always be the key priority. If you are stuck in an elevator, if the lights won’t go on, if your fridge is thawing out … because the power is gone, you are not going to be concerned about the particular source of that power. Whether it is hydro, wind, solar, coal or gas, you want to know that the energy is secure.

“Let’s take this storm in South Australia … as a real wake-up call. Let’s end the ideology and focus on clear renewable targets.”

However, Bill Shorten said it was “poor form” for the Coalition to make political points about renewables while the crisis was ongoing in South Australia.

“This is a super-storm, 80,000 lightning strikes. That didn’t happen because of the renewable energy target; that’s the weather,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Our fellow Australians are struggling through a massive storm and the clean-up and you’ve got the government in Canberra trying to play cheap politics. Really, this country decides better.”

Mr Turnbull said he wanted Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg to open negotiations about achieving a single, national renewable energy target ahead of a summit of state and territory leaders.

“We have emission reduction targets we have agreed to in Paris. They are substantial. I have been thanked by world leaders, President Obama no less, for the contribution that we’ve made,” he said.

“We should focus on those and stop the political gamesmanship between the states. We’ve got to recognise that energy security is the key priority and targeting lower emissions is very important but it must be consistent with energy security.”

WEATHER: warnings across SA, NSW, Vic

Frydenberg warns of anger

Earlier today Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg warned of deep public anger flowing from blackouts while questioning the reliability of South Australia’s electricity system.

“Clearly we have a reliability issue in South Australia given what happened last night,” he told FiveAA radio.

“It’s completely unacceptable and there will be real questions that need to be asked of the Australian Energy Market Operator.”

He said questions would be asked of AEMO, with an imminent report into the statewide power failure.

“Why was there this cascading effect across the network when you saw a lightning strike on a power station, when you saw power lines go down ... why did that lead to the whole network coming down and why did it take such a significant amount of time to get back online?” he asked.

“Clearly there’s going to be greater focus as well on the impact of renewable energy on the reliability of the system.”

In South Australia, wind and solar account for around 40 per cent of electricity generation, the highest percentage in the nation.

He warned of the political ramifications of lights going out, saying “nobody forgives us when they go off”.

Meanwhile, Australia’s wind advocacy group says those blaming renewables for the blackout are “irresponsible.

Wind farms were pumping nearly 1000 megawatts of energy into the system before the network tripped, meeting 50 per cent of demand, the Australian Wind Alliance said.

Alliance national co-ordinator Andrew Bray said around 960 megawatts were coming from South Australia’s wind farms at 4.30pm yesterday, covering around 50% of the state’s demand.

“Wind was going strong when the network went off and was among the first back on when the network recovered,” Mr Bray said.

“The failure of the network was a weather event, pure and simple. Extreme weather knocked out 23 transmission pylons. Storms of this magnitude will knock out the power network no matter what the source of power is.

“When the wind blows South Australia gets the majority of its power from clean renewable energy. That is something South Australia can be proud of.”

Joyce hits out at ‘ignorant’ claims

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has been criticised as “ignorant” for citing South Australia’s heavy reliance on wind energy as a cause of the state’s blackout.

The entire state was plunged into darkness on Wednesday afternoon after lightning strikes struck transmission lines, causing the Victorian interconnector to shut down. More than 70,000 homes remained without power this morning.

Mr Joyce, the leader of the Nationals, this morning claimed the blackout was caused by the failure of the state’s wind farms.

“With the strong reliance on wind power there’s an exceptional draw that is then put on the network from other sources when that wind power is unable to be generated,” Mr Joyce told ABC radio.

“Of course, in the middle of a storm, there are certain areas where wind power works — it works when wind is at a milder style, it doesn’t work when there’s no wind and it doesn’t work when there’s excessive wind — and it obviously wasn’t working too well last night because they had a blackout.”

Premier Jay Weatherill insisted the state’s energy mix had nothing to do with the blackout, citing advice from the federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and Australian Electricity Market Operator. He accused Mr Joyce of leading a “jihad against wind farms”.

“If this had happened 20 years ago when there was no renewable energy, the same thing would have happened … This is a weather event, not a renewable energy event,” he said.

“I’ve been working closely with Josh Frydenberg and with the Prime Minister we’re on the same page, and you’ve got these ignorant remarks being made by Barnaby Joyce because he hates wind farms and he’s decided to play politics with a crisis.

“This is the way the system has been designed to operate. It’s designed when there are sudden surges and drop-offs in power in the system to protect the assets in the system so they can then be restored quickly.”

Mr Weatherill compared the shutdown to a similar event in New York. “When this occurred on the east coast of the US, New York was out for 38 hours,” Mr Weatherill said.

Mr Frydenberg said the blackout was triggered by a “safety valve” that shut down the interconnector after lightning struck a power plant.

“The head of (the Australian Energy Market Operator) tells me that when you lose such a substantial amount of power it doesn’t matter how that power is generated, that is what will occur, the electricity grid will go down,” he told ABC radio.

Nevertheless, Mr Frydenberg accused states of pursuing “unrealistic energy targets” that needed to be “harmonised” to keep the nation’s electricity supply stable and affordable.

“It’s fine to have a debate about a lower emissions future, and we’re all in favour of that, but the first priority of government must be to keep the lights on,” he said.

South Australian senator Nick Xenophon called for an inquiry into the state’s power supply, saying heads should roll.

The intense weather pattern is set to escalate today with a current flood watch for the metropolitan area and Adelaide Hills, as two fronts cross the state, bringing up to 100mm of rain and winds of up to 100km per hour.

The State Emergency Service deputy chief officer Dermot Barry said creeks were likely to flood and trees could be uprooted because grounds were already saturated after strong storms two weeks ago caused flooding in the Adelaide Hills.

SA opposition leader Steven Marshall has called for an inquiry into the statewide blackout and said it was “unacceptable” that the entire state was blacked out after several power lines were knocked over.

“An independent investigation into this crisis must commence immediately,” Mr Marshall said.

“The state government must explain exactly what happened and why there wasn’t a back-up.”

Jared Owens contributed to this report

Additional reporting: AAP