Soaring temperatures and strained power supplies have prompted the New South Wales government to ask residents to reduce electricity use in a bid to avoid outages.
The premier, Chris Minns, said Sydney residents should avoid using power-hungry devices if they can during a crunch period, which was expected to last for five hours.
“We are asking you not [to] run your dishwasher, not to run your washing machine this afternoon, between 3 and 8 [pm AEDT],” Minns said. “You’ll be helping the grid.”
“We’re hoping that these measures reduce the amount of demand on the energy system over that crucial … period, and as a result won’t lead to load-shedding or blackouts,” he said, adding the government would keep the public updated.
The heatwave toasting eastern Australia was forecast to peak on Wednesday, as temperatures again climbed towards 40C in parts of Sydney.
By mid-afternoon, Penrith in Sydney’s west had reached 39.9C, its highest reading since 29 February, marking the site’s fifth consecutive day of 35C-plus heat. It was also the country’s hottest location, edging remote regions in Queensland and WA.
The energy minister, Penny Sharpe, said state, federal and ACT government agencies, water utilities and local councils had also been asked to voluntarily cut electricity use.
“Agencies will do this by increasing the set point of air conditioning where safe and feasible, closing blinds, turning off non-essential lighting and turning off equipment when not in use,” Sharpe said. Residents should set air-conditioners to 24 to 26C between 3pm and 8pm
The energy market operator was also preparing to request some big users to cut loads if needed.
Sydney’s CBD was also predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology to be the hottest capital for the day, with a top of 34C forecast – or the warmest since the end of February. Its temperature reached almost 33C at about 11am, before sea breezes and cloud cover nudged the mercury down.
Regions expecting low to high 30s today also include the Hunter and Illawarra districts to Sydney’s north and south, respectively.
“Severe heatwave conditions are expected to peak on Wednesday, then ease by the weekend,” the bureau said in a warning alert. “Locations likely to be impacted include Batemans Bay, Camden, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Liverpool, Nowra, Penrith, Parramatta, Richmond and Wollongong.”
In line with recent days, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) has been issuing alerts calling for more generation from electricity suppliers to ensure power is not interrupted.
On Wednesday morning, Aemo said a so-called level 3 lack of reserve (LOR3) condition was possible later in the day as solar output decreased towards sunset. By 4.30pm AEDT the market was likely to require 84 megawatts of additional supply to avoid interrupted load – or blackouts.
Aemo also indicated that it was preparing to activate its so-called reliability and emergency reserve trader scheme later on Wednesday. If triggered, big energy users that have signed up to the scheme could be asked to cut power use in return for compensation.
“Aemo continues to work with industry and the state government to manage expected low electricity reserves this afternoon in NSW,” a spokesperson said. “Ahead of this tight supply-demand period, Aemo has requested that all available generation and transmission resources be deployed to ensure consumer electricity needs are met.”
It also said “additional reserves” had also been secured through its Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) mechanism that rewards big users for powering down during tight conditions.
At least one smelter may have responded to the request, according to Dylan McConnell, an energy specialist at the University of NSW.
About 6 gigawatts of coal-fired power station capacity remained unavailable, including about 3GW that was not previously scheduled. Many of Australia’s coal plants are nearing the end of their design lives, requiring more frequent and more costly repairs to keep operating.
Aemo also issued LOR2 level alerts for NSW for Wednesday afternoon and for periods on Thursday and Friday as the heatwave slowly ebbs. Such alerts are calls for generators to provide extra capacity as a backup in case committed plants do not operate as expected and drop off without warning.
Power prices were reaching the $17,500/megawatt-hour cap in the wholesale market soon after 3pm. That compares with average prices of the order of $125/MWh.
As of early afternoon, Aemo was looking for about 700MW more power to be in reserve from 3.30pm to 8pm. Wholesale power prices may also spike to their ceiling of $17,500/megawatt-hour later on Wednesday, Aemo data indicated.
Stephanie Bashir, chief executive of Nexa Advisory, said authorities wouldn’t be scrambling now “if they were properly enabling consumers to manage their own demand, and unleashing development and connection of renewables, including through orderly closure of coal plants”.
‘The Minns government is yet to publish its energy plan for NSW,” Bashir said. “Projects already in the pipeline are clogged inside it.”
The weather setup, meanwhile, would favour thunderstorm activity over parts of eastern Australia including the prospect of heavy rainfall as tropical moisture was dragged southwards.
Melbourne was facing severe thunderstorms, with the potential for damaging winds, hailstones and heavy rainfall on Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday will likely bring more thunderstorm activity, with Sydney and Canberra among the centres facing storms. Sydney may collect 15mm of rain on Thursday, with falls of as much as 30-35mm on both Friday and Saturday, the bureau said.
The NSW State Emergency Service said “widespread and potentially severe storms with heavy rain, damaging winds and large hail is possible in many parts of the state including Western NSW, Sydney, Mid North Coast, parts of the Hunter and Illawarra”.
“From Friday through to Sunday widespread moderate to heavy rain is expected in many areas as a rain band moves into eastern parts of the state,” it said in a statement.
