New South Wales residents are being asked to cut back their power usage until later this evening as the electricity network struggles with increased demand from an ongoing heatwave.
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00:00Well, here in Sydney's east, a sea breeze has helped keep a lid on temperatures.
00:06It peaked at 32 degrees in the city today, but in Penrith it was a much different story,
00:11with the western Sydney suburb hitting 39 degrees just before 3 o'clock this afternoon.
00:17Despite all the solar generation today, a shortfall of energy has been predicted by
00:22AEMO, that's Australia's energy market operator.
00:26That's because four of the state's ten generation units are out of action.
00:30The Energy Minister's office says two of those outages were planned, but two were unexpected,
00:36and it's that unplanned loss of generation combined with increased usage because of the
00:41heatwave that's led to AEMO warning of a supply gap during today's peak period.
00:47That means load shedding, or in other words blackouts, may be needed to stabilise the
00:52grid.
00:53To avoid that, the government has asked government agencies, local councils and large utilities
00:59such as Sydney Water to limit their use over the coming hours.
01:03Premier Chris Minn says with the warming climate and the state's transition to renewable energy
01:08sources that events such as today are likely to become more commonplace in the years ahead.
01:15Increasingly, you'll see heatwave conditions earlier and earlier in the year, and obviously
01:21we have to manage that, but at the same time we're seeing more solar come on, more battery
01:26technology that can fill the gap.
01:28Right now, this is a difficult one for us to manage, but we're hopeful, and AEMO's certainly,
01:33their prediction is that we can get through the next 24 hours, provided we take these
01:37steps.
01:38The likelihood of blackouts tonight in New South Wales depends on how much demand can
01:41be cut back.
01:43The government is asking households to help the grid if they can.
01:47It's suggesting measures such as not using the dishwasher or washing machine before eight
01:52o'clock tonight, switching off the air conditioning or running it at a warmer temperature than
01:56usual and closing the curtains or blinds earlier.
02:00The good news for the power grid is that cooler weather is on its way.
02:04A cold front is forecast to hit Sydney late tomorrow and into Friday, bringing a significant
02:10drop in temperatures as well as some rainfall.
02:13But in the meantime, households are being asked to do what they can to keep cool without
02:17straining the energy grid too much.