The South Australian Business Chamber is deeply disappointed with the load shedding event that took place in South Australia last night, with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) cutting 100MW of supply for 37 minutes impacting approximately 40,000 customers across the State.
This is the second load shedding event in the last three months and the third in the past eighteen months, in addition to a State-wide blackout which cost South Australian businesses $367 million and widespread outages during December’s storms.
For some perspective, in the fifteen years prior to 2015, South Australia only had three load shedding events.
“In early September, the South Australian Business Chamber was made aware of AEMO generated forecasts which predicted reserve shortfalls this summer and we subsequently raised our concerns with AEMO only to be informed that a breach of the reliability standard was not expected,” Executive Director, Industry and Government Engagement, Anthony Penney, said today.
The South Australian Business Chamber also met with the State Government to raise the same concerns as we were not satisfied with the adequacy of AEMO’s assurances and informed the Australian Energy Regulator and Federal Government to keep their eye on the situation” Mr Penney said.
“What last night’s events showed is that either the existing forecasting tools, or mechanisms to avoid load shedding, are inadequate” Mr Penney said.
“Given the gravity of a load shedding event, we would expect the red flag to be raised well ahead of time and the controlling members of AEMO, the Council of Australian Governments, be given the opportunity to negotiate an outcome to keep the lights on if AEMO cannot.”
“The most frustrating aspect of this most recent event is that it was anticipated by many businesses and other energy industry experts well in advance but like the frog in boiling water, nothing happened in time and what could have been avoided, caused yet another impost on South Australia energy consumers, including businesses who are fed up with the current spate of reliability issues,” he also said.
“We appreciate this is a complex market but having a reliable supply of electricity is a fundamental pillar of a developed economy and despite the political differences of State and Federal Governments, South Australia cannot afford any more inertia on solving our reliability issues,” Mr Penney said.
“We support the ongoing work of the Finkel Review but we are calling on an emergency meeting of the COAG Energy Council, together with key generators, to ensure that at least in the short term, reliability in South Australia and indeed the whole national electricity market is assured,” he also said.
Media ContactSonia Bavistock
Media & Communications Executive
0477 006 475
soniab@business-sa.com
