Face of Nation : Australians living and operating businesses in eastern states can expect a higher risk of blackouts over summer than the past year, a new report says.
The Australian Energy Market Operator on Thursday released its latest Electricity Statement of Opportunities which found the need for more electricity supply or other action to meet high demand over the coming summer, especially in Victoria.
In Victoria this summer, unplanned outages at Loy Yang A2 and Mortlake 2 “pose a significant risk” of insufficient supply that could lead to involuntary load shedding, the report said, potentially leaving up to 1.3 million households without power. However, other states within the national electricity market aren’t expected to experience such problems this summer.
The gradual closure of the Liddell coal-fired power station and a combination of high summer demand and unplanned generator outages will leave NSW “exposed to significant supply gaps and involuntary load shedding” at peak times without “mitigating actions” being taken in advance.
In the longer term, an extra five gigawatts of committed new power generation projects over the next three years – most of which involve renewable energy – will only make a “limited contribution” to meeting demand during peak hours, the report said.
AEMO chief Audrey Zibelman said the outlook report showed the need for “urgent action and prudent planning and investment” in the sector to deliver affordable and reliable electricity. She said it was not sustainable or cost-effective for consumers and businesses to “reactively” secure extra electricity resources to meet peak summer demand.
“A more measured course is to take a number of deliberate actions that address the challenges of our ageing coal fleet and which meet the need for secure and dispatchable supply, whilst also taking advantage of Australia’s natural resources,” she said.
“We need to harness all the resources we have in the system, together with the opportunities that come with the technological advances occurring in the industry to meet current and future energy demands at the lowest cost possible.”
Further action could include a new “reliability standard” which ensured each region has enough power to to meet peak demand requirements 90 per cent of the time – a standard used internationally.
