00:00The light stayed on this time, but the state of the energy network has sparked worry.
00:08I think, again, it will be a nerve-wracking summer in New South Wales.
00:12Fears of a supply shortage yesterday prompted warnings of blackouts.
00:18It was a hot spring day, 39 degrees in Sydney's west, but not as hot as it gets in summer.
00:24We are not yet at the peak demand periods.
00:26The peak demands are well off the summer peaks.
00:30The coal-fired power stations at Vale's Point and Ararring at Lake Macquarie and Bayswater
00:35at Musselbrook had generation units out of action.
00:38Two of the outages were planned, two were unexpected.
00:42Even with ample solar and wind generation, households and businesses were told to conserve
00:47power to ward off a shortfall.
00:50Why is it that the power system can't handle what is pretty moderate conditions?
00:56And I think the answer to that is it's just such an extremely tight market.
01:01A report by the Australian Energy Market Operator in August forecast reliability risks in New
01:06South Wales this coming summer.
01:09We knew this was coming.
01:11Ageing coal-fired power stations are increasingly unreliable.
01:15The state government's been accused of taking too long to approve renewable projects.
01:20We know there's one project that's sitting there right now that could be ticked off before
01:23the end of the year, another large-scale wind project.
01:26The government says it's released new planning guidelines to speed up the approval process,
01:31but that won't help keep the lights on this summer.
01:33A failure of a number of units at a coal generator, certainly one of the bigger ones, at time
01:39of summer peak must have New South Wales government petrified.
01:45A buffer against blackouts that's looking increasingly thin.
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