Heat waves and energy supply fact sheet released

The Australian Energy Council has released a fact sheet on heat waves and power supplies, which has been produced in conjunction with Energy Networks Australia.

The Australian Energy Council’s General Manager Policy, Ben Skinner, said that electricity demand has historically been highest on hot week days and when business and industry is in full operation.

“The biggest risk is when there is very high demand. Usually that is at the end of a run of two or more hot days. Buildings are already hot, there may be low output from wind generation and solar PV output declines late in the afternoon.”

The council also said that individual power station generation units can and do have unplanned outages from time to time. This was normal for large plant both in Australia and overseas. Power systems have back-up capacity to manage a limited number of individual outages.

“There can also be localised issues with power supply on hot days, but these do not reflect systemic problems.

“Although there are challenges, hydro, gas and coal-fired plants have performed during previous heatwave events and that will continue to be the case.”

The fact sheet is available here.

About the Australian Energy Council

The Council represents 21 major electricity and downstream natural gas businesses operating in competitive wholesale and retail energy markets. These businesses collectively generate the overwhelming majority of electricity in Australia and sell gas and electricity to over 10 million homes and businesses.

Media contact             Carl Kitchen                0401 691 342