NSW faces potential power shortages during the coming heatwave, prompting the electricity market operator to demand additional supply.
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The demand, issued on Thursday morning by Australian Energy Markets Operator (AEMO), comes after the agency triggered rolling power cuts in South Australia on Wednesday evening as the mercury hovered near 40 degrees.
The loss of electricity to about 40,000 South Australian households for about half an hour reignited a debate over the country's energy policy, with the state blaming AEMO and the federal government blaming states for excessive renewable energy goals.
The issue, though, extended beyond wind farms on Thursday, when AEMO issued an alert for a looming supply shortfall for Friday afternoon for NSW - a state that gets the great bulk of its electricity from coal and gas-fired power stations.
With temperatures set to climb into the 40s across most of NSW on Friday and for several days afterwards, AEMO issued a so-called "forecast lack of reserve" notice after identifying a 19-megawatt shortfall in the NSW region for 5-5.30pm on Friday.
"AEMO is seeking a market response," the statement said. "AEMO will determine the latest time at which it would need to intervene."
'Catastrophic failure'
AEMO's early warning to get additional supplies lined up contrasts with what South Australia's Energy Minister Tim Koutsantonis called a "massive, catastrophic failure" by the agency to predict his state's excess demand and take appropriate steps to avoid rolling blackouts on Wednesday evening.
About 40,000 households in South Australia were without power for about half an hour on Wednesday evening after the AEMO identified a 100 megawatt shortfall from local generation capacity and ordered "rotational load shedding".
Much of the state had sweltered through temperatures that reached the low 40s, and similar heat is expected on Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Mr Koutsantonis told Radio National on Thursday the state had sufficient electricity capacity available, with about 250 MW of the Pelican Point gas-fired power station unused.
"Every South Australian has every right to be furious with the way our national electricity market is operating," Mr Koutsantonis told RN.
"We're at the mercy now of national operators in a privatised market that operate on price signals rather than a public good."
The largest owner of Pelican Point, French multinational electric utility company Engie, said half of the 490 MW power plant had been operating since last June.
The other unit, though, had not been in service because "it hasn't been viable to operate", a spokesman told Fairfax Media.
'Crisis'
Federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the latest power failure followed a series of similar events, including last September's total outage across the state after a freak storm.
This time there was no tempest, but wind energy supplied just 2.5 per cent of the electricity in the state, underscoring the lack of reliability in South Australia's power sector, he said.
"[Premier] Jay Weatherill has a crisis here," Mr Frydenberg told Sky News on Thursday, adding there would be a full inquiry into Wednesday's outages.
Mr Frydenberg said the Labor-run states had "run ahead" of the market in setting renewable energy targets beyond the 2020 goal set at the Commonwealth level.
That target is for annual renewable energy sources to provide 33,000 gigawatt-hours per per by 2020, amounting to an expected share of about 23 per cent of Australia's electricity market by then.
South Australia draws about 40 per cent of its power from renewable energy, mostly wind farms. It also has a power link to Victoria through which it can export or import supplies.
Queensland has set a target of supplying 50 per cent of power from clean energy sources by 2030, a goal that federal Labor leader Bill Shorten endorses nationally. The Victorian goal is for 40 per cent by 2025.
'Retaking control'
Mr Koutsantonis said Wednesday's cuts were unnecessary and the state would be announcing steps it would take to avoid a repeat of the rolling blackouts.
"The Premier and I have come to the conclusion now that the South Australian people expect us to retake control of own destiny," he told RN.
"We are going to be intervening in the market from this day forward. We're not going to allow market forces and people who use electricity markets for profiteering to set our own future."
Fairfax Media has sought comment from AEMO about whether it could have avoided the blackouts, and whether there would be any steps as the mercury soars again on Thursday.
At a media conference on Thursday, Mr Weatherill said it was "galling to me to think there was sufficient thermal capacity in the system and it wasn't used".
Mr Koutsantonis said AEMO had been operating the industry "like a stockmarket" but neither he nor Mr Weatherill detailed what steps they planned to take.
