Power restored for over 400,000 despite extreme weather volatility in Australia
Lightning on power grid concept. Courtesy 123rf
A day after power outages were reported for 530,000 homes and businesses in the Australian state of Victoria, restoration efforts have brought the number down to just above 120,000.
Extreme storm activity, strong winds, lightning and resulting fire danger and falling trees caused damage to the electricity network in Victoria, Australia, while also causing access issues for repair crews to damaged powerlines and critical infrastructure.
In a 5.30pm (GMT+11) statement on Tuesday, February 13 from AEMO, the country’s power system operator, it was reported that Victoria’s electricity distribution businesses confirmed approximately 500,000 customers without electricity.
Australia’s Minister for the State Electricity Commission (SEC), Lily D’Ambrosia, on X called the situation “one of the largest outage events in the state’s history”.
However, strong restoration efforts were put in place, bringing the number down to little more than 120,000, as per a February 14 statement at 5pm from the operator.
According to AEMO, when the volatile weather hit, the Moorabool to Sydenham 500kv transmission lines tripped, multiple generators disconnected from the grid and consumers experienced a loss of electricity supply.
According to reportage by Weatherzone, the main commercial provider of meteorological services in Australia, the powerful winds caused six transmission towers to collapse near Anakie, to the north of Geelong, resulting in the peak of the power outages.
At the time of the incident, to keep the power system secure, AEMO directed AusNet Services to enact controlled load shedding, a mechanism used as a last resort to protect system security and prevent long-term damage to system infrastructure.
Load shedding is the planned reduction of electricity to selected areas during extreme events to protect the electricity network from long-term damage and widespread consumer outages, assisting with the balance of supply and demand to maintain power system security.
The last resort system is put into place either due to extreme weather or in the event of generation and infrastructure outages, both being the case in Victoria.
According to the latest update from the operator, vegetation clearing and repairs to damaged powerlines and poles continue. However, given the extent of the widespread damage, it may take days or more than a week in extreme circumstances to restore electricity to all of those impacted.
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A struggling power market
Although unprecedented, volatile weather conditions impacting the Australian network have been a frequent occurrence in recent years.
This is so much so that, according to Norway’s Rystad Energy in October 2023, the power market in Australia is the most volatile in the world.
Specifically, states the energy research company, issues of natural disasters such as cyclonic winds or bushfires have become more frequent and devastating in recent years; alongside unplanned coal generation outages, they have led to unexpected losses of supply for the country.
Due to these losses, states Rystad, Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), which interconnects power markets in Queensland, New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia has been experiencing the most fluctuations in daily prices of any system worldwide.
Follow-up forecasts from Weatherzone add that a severe storm will be spreading to New South Wales today. Although the state is not expected to see a repeat of the weather’s impact on power, “there is a decent chance of some dangerous storms.”
