South Australia has successfully managed an oversupply of electricity after being disconnected from the national energy grid, with the state government describing fears of possible blackouts as a bit of "hysteria".
With SA unable to export excess solar and wind power across the border to Victoria, generation from some commercial, industrial and residential solar systems was curtailed on Thursday to minimise the risk of disturbances across the network.
The state's link with Victoria was cut during violent storms on Saturday which brought down a 50-metre transmission tower near Tailem Bend, east of Adelaide.
Transmission company ElectraNet is working to construct a temporary tower and expects to have the interconnector back up and running by Sunday.
The Australian Energy Market Operator described the current situation as "challenging operating times".
"South Australia's disconnection from the National Electricity Market, as well as periods of low demand and high rooftop solar generation during spring, has required a range of actions to ensure a reliable and secure electricity supply while ElectraNet restores the transmission lines to service," the operator said.
But Energy Minister Tom Koustantonis said he had been in contact with the AEMO on Thursday and had been assured that "all is well".
"We are doing everything in our power to make sure that South Australia's load is stable and secure," he said.
"So let's leave the hysteria to one side and look at the facts."
At the height of the weekend storms, about 163,000 properties across SA lost electricity supplies in the worst outage since the statewide blackout in 2016.
SA was hit with more than 423,000 lightning strikes, damaging winds and torrential rain causing widespread damage, with more than 500 reports of wires down and minor flooding.
By Thursday the number of properties still without power was down to about 1250, with Mr Koutsantonis describing the reconnection effort as herculean.
"Under any circumstances, it's world-best practice," he said.
"But yes, if you're one of the few people still without power it's very, very frustrating and my words are cold comfort."
In SA's 2016 statewide blackout, storms damaged major transmission lines in the state's mid-north which tripped most of the SA power grid, blacking out about 850,000 properties.
