People urged to conserve power until 8pm to avoid blackouts

ABC NEWS (Australia)

New South Wales residents are being asked to cut back their power usage until later this evening as the electricity network struggles with increased demand from an ongoing heatwave.

Transcript

00:00Well, here in Sydney's east, a sea breeze has helped keep a lid on temperatures.

00:06It peaked at 32 degrees in the city today, but in Penrith it was a much different story,

00:11with the western Sydney suburb hitting 39 degrees just before 3 o'clock this afternoon.

00:17Despite all the solar generation today, a shortfall of energy has been predicted by

00:22AEMO, that's Australia's energy market operator.

00:26That's because four of the state's ten generation units are out of action.

00:30The Energy Minister's office says two of those outages were planned, but two were unexpected,

00:36and it's that unplanned loss of generation combined with increased usage because of the

00:41heatwave that's led to AEMO warning of a supply gap during today's peak period.

00:47That means load shedding, or in other words blackouts, may be needed to stabilise the

00:52grid.

00:53To avoid that, the government has asked government agencies, local councils and large utilities

00:59such as Sydney Water to limit their use over the coming hours.

01:03Premier Chris Minn says with the warming climate and the state's transition to renewable energy

01:08sources that events such as today are likely to become more commonplace in the years ahead.

01:15Increasingly, you'll see heatwave conditions earlier and earlier in the year, and obviously

01:21we have to manage that, but at the same time we're seeing more solar come on, more battery

01:26technology that can fill the gap.

01:28Right now, this is a difficult one for us to manage, but we're hopeful, and AEMO's certainly,

01:33their prediction is that we can get through the next 24 hours, provided we take these

01:37steps.

01:38The likelihood of blackouts tonight in New South Wales depends on how much demand can

01:41be cut back.

01:43The government is asking households to help the grid if they can.

01:47It's suggesting measures such as not using the dishwasher or washing machine before eight

01:52o'clock tonight, switching off the air conditioning or running it at a warmer temperature than

01:56usual and closing the curtains or blinds earlier.

02:00The good news for the power grid is that cooler weather is on its way.

02:04A cold front is forecast to hit Sydney late tomorrow and into Friday, bringing a significant

02:10drop in temperatures as well as some rainfall.

02:13But in the meantime, households are being asked to do what they can to keep cool without

02:17straining the energy grid too much.

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