Rolling blackouts ordered in Adelaide as city swelters

South Australians have again been struck with rolling blackouts as the state sweltered in 40C temperatures.

A map of power outages in South Australia tonight.

Widespread power blackouts were imposed across Adelaide and parts of South Australia with heatwave conditions forcing authorities to impose load shedding.

About 40,000 properties were without electricity supplies for about 30 minutes because of what SA Power Networks said was a direction by the Australian Energy Market Regulator.

The temperature was still above 40C when the rolling blackouts began at 6.30pm to conserve supplies as residents sought relief with air conditioners.

Appearing live on Facebook for a question and answer session, Premier Jay Weatherill blamed the national energy market for the outages saying a gas-powered generation plant in SA had not been required to come online. “The rules of the energy market are broken,” he said. “We’ll be asking for changes.”

SA Power Networks said in a tweet tonight: “AEMO has instructed us to commence 100MW rotational #load shedding via Govt agreed list due to lack of available generation supply in SA.’’

AEMO has instructed us to commence 100MW rotational #load shedding via Govt agreed list due to lack of available generation supply in SA.

— SA Power Networks (@SAPowerNetworks) February 8, 2017

In a later tweet, the company said power was back on and returning to homes.

AEMO has called end to load shedding, we are restoring power. Should take 10 to 15 minutes. Approx 40,000 customers affected about 30mins.

— SA Power Networks (@SAPowerNetworks) February 8, 2017

State Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis was quick to lay blame, tweeting: “Every South Australian has a right to be angry. We had spare capacity in the SA generation market and the market didn’t turn that generation on.”

Power shedding tonight was avoidable. There was sufficient local generation to meet our demand tonight, but AEMO didn't instruct it on! Why?

— Tom Koutsantonis (@TKoutsantonisMP) February 8, 2017

South Australian Liberal MP Simon Birmingham said it was “yet another example that the South Australian government can’t keep the lights on”.

“It’s a chronic failing that can only hurt investment confidence in the state,” he said. “It’s a demonstration that ad hoc state-based renewable energy targets have gone too far — when reliability can’t be maintained on a day the likes of which SA faces numerous times every single summer.”

Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg blamed the blackouts on the SA government’s renewable energy target, which he described as ‘‘madness’’.

.@JoshFrydenberg says about 40,000 properties were without electricity due to high demand and much less supply from wind generation #headsup pic.twitter.com/8l6IbYyYb0

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 8, 2017

Malcolm Turnbull this week renewed his attack on South Australia’s “ideological” energy policies, which have produced a wind-reliant grid, blaming it for high electricity costs and an unreliable supply.

In Question Time yesterday he taunted Labor over its 50 per cent renewable energy target that would push up prices and make supply unreliable. Mr Turnbull had fun at Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler’s expense, asking if the South Australian MP had a generator in his backyard to deal with blackouts.

State swelters in extreme heat

The cuts came as temperatures soared across SA, with the mercury hitting 42.4C in Adelaide.

It was even hotter in some regional centres where the heatwave was well into its second week.

Moomba had a maximum of 46.6C, Tarcoola 46.3C while Ceduna, Port Augusta, Roxby Downs and Woomera also topped 46C.

The Bureau of Meterology said fast moving weather systems and the northern Australian monsoon were driving Adelaide’s wacky summer weather with the city sweltering just days after soaking rain.

Meteorologist Matt Collopy says the drenching Adelaide and parts of the state copped on Sunday and Monday this week is helping to drive high humidity levels, making the hot conditions feel even worse.

“That’s part of it. But in the bigger picture the monsoon over the northern part of Australia is quite active at the moment and we’ve seen continued drawing down that almost tropical moisture,” he said.

Adelaide has been drenched by 165mm of rain so far this summer, about triple the average, with Mr Collopy describing the prevailing conditions as very unusual. SA Health chief medical officer Paddy Phillips said all the state’s public had put special measures in place to deal with extra heat-related presentations, which were more likely later in the week.

“Generally the stresses that people feel come on after two or three days,” he said.

“With two or three days of sustained heat, especially with the heat maintained overnight, we start to see presentations related directly to the heat but also exacerbations of people’s existing heart and kidney disease.” People struggling with the heat, especially those without air conditioning, have been urged to seek out cooler spots, including libraries, shopping malls and some government buildings.

Despite the heat, the bushfire risk across the state did not reach severe levels though three districts including the Riverland and the northeast pastoral.

With AAP