Why do we experience load shedding

Michael Brear, the director of the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne said if other jurisdictions were as transparent as South Australia about their plans, it might help reassure people that load shedding was being implemented fairly.

Professor Brear says the alternative to manual load shedding would be more widespread and longer-lasting interruptions to power supply. It's to minimise the inconvenience and share this inconvenience across the whole population so that collectively we don't experience much worse.

AEMO's summer readiness plan, released in December , warned of a risk of blackouts across the national market but particularly in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, due to a combination of extreme weather, bushfires and plan outages. The market operator and Victoria secured extra power reserves ahead of summer to reduce the blackout risk, but Ms D'Ambrosio was not giving any guarantees this week.

Professor Brear said since the closure of Victoria's Hazelwood coal-fired power station in , which removed 1, megawatts of generation capacity, the state did not generate enough power to meet demand at its peak. As for whether load shedding will be necessary this summer, he said it would largely depend on the weather, as well as the preparedness of coal and gas-fired generators. Weather conditions influence demand for electricity as well as how much wind and solar energy is generated, and how reliably the state's remaining coal-fired power plants operate.

Longer term, he said Victoria needed more capacity to generate dispatchable power — power that can be turned on when it's needed, even if the wind isn't blowing and the sun has set. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.

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These challenges encountered by Eskom cause the production levels to be too low to meet the demand for electricity from industrial and domestic customers, therefore opening a new episode of load-shedding. The structural energy crisis the country faces since will not be solved in the short run. However, adopting an energy-savvy behaviour, using energy-efficient appliances and monitoring your power usage will participate to the national effort to reduce the energy consumption, and reduce your electricity bill!

Knowing the load-shedding schedule for the area you live in, and getting ready for load-shedding when announced by the media can also make it easier to cope with the two-hours cut. The long belated delivery of the Kusile and Medupi power stations are causing the baseline production to be particularly low, and the aging power plants cannot supply enough power to guarantee the stability of the grid.

However, the delivery of Medupi and Kusile power stations is expected in two to three years, and should ease the pressure put on the grid, and the multiple independent power producers having invested in South Africa will offer Eskom a possibility to purchase electricity to third-party producers, therefore offering an alternative load-shedding episodes.

Check power outages. I like something. Your feedback is highly valued and is used to improve our website. Home Outages Planned and unplanned outages What is load shedding? What is load shedding? Why does load shedding occur? Load shedding may be necessary due to including: an unexpected loss of major electricity generator due to equipment failure damage to transmission lines during a severe storm a combination of heatwave conditions and very high levels of power consumption by customers.

Am I going to lose my power? How long will my power be off? How are the areas for load shedding chosen? Please remember, always dial triple zero in a medical emergency and ask for an ambulance.

What can I do? NSW Health advises people to: stay well hydrated and avoid drinking alcohol and hot or sugary drinks close windows and use curtains or blinds to keep the sun out if you need air conditioning for comfort, spend time in air-conditioned places like shopping centres, libraries or cinemas The NSW Food Authority advises freezers will usually not defrost and allow food to spoil for at least 24 hours, provided the door is kept shut.