Recently, the high temperature weather continued, a wave of heat wave swept across Australia.
Temperatures in many states will soar to 40 degrees, or as high as 46 degrees, and are expected to rise even higher on Friday.
Some speculate that hot weather will lead to "tension" in the power system and that power will be cut off in Victoria and South Australia.
But just now, the news of a "forced blackout" has proved almost impossible!
"official disclaimer: there is a reserve, don't panic."
(AEMO), Australia's energy market operator, said today that families in Victoria and South Australia have little chance of unplanned blackouts.
Today, however, power supplies in Victoria and South Australia will be temporarily tightened to store electricity in response to a possible shortage of electricity tomorrow in hot weather.
AEMO's president, Audrey Zibelman:, predicted this morning that there should be enough power reserves to meet the demand for electricity without the need to cut the load.
"what we've been doing is making sure we have enough generator reserves so that if one of our generators goes down, we can replace it with something else," Ms. Zibelman told journalist.
"We will use generators to generate electricity first and then use reserve power. Finally, only when the first two conditions are tense will we force residents to reduce their electricity consumption."
"but this is the last step, and we are far from it!"
"attention to peak power"
Ms. Zibelman called on consumers to minimize power consumption in recent days, especially during periods of peak demand-between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. in recent days.
"We call on everyone that it is best not to use power-consuming devices such as washing machines and dishwashers at this time," she said.
"it is recommended that the air conditioning temperature be around 24 ℃, and that the temperature is too low to be necessary. It's also a comfortable temperature. "
"forced blackouts are almost impossible."
It is reported that the state currently has three large power plants, two at the Yallourn Power Station and one at the Loy Yang Power Station.
As we all know, if energy reserves are insufficient, it usually leads to power outages.
But don't panic, in order to prevent this from happening, AEMO has purchased emergency energy that is not available in the market as a reserve that will be used only if the supply cannot meet the needs of users.
The reserves cost nearly A $52 million to taxpayer in Victoria and South Australia last year, adding an average of $6 to electricity bills per household.
South Australia's energy minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said yesterday that customers in South Australia should be protected from electricity today, according to AEMO forecasts.
"it's a bit difficult to get through the current peak, but we should be able to get through it."
"We still have 240 megawatts of power reserves, which means we have 17 percent extra reserves for all of South Australia's electricity consumption, far more than the current forecast for peak demand," he said.
"it's a little more nervous than we thought, but it's still very easy to control. There should be no problem with our observation every half hour now. "
In its summer outlook last November, AEMO warned that the risk of forced blackouts in Victoria and South Australia increased this year.
Part of the reason is that the weather bureau expects temperatures to be higher than previous years' averages this summer and that heat waves will last for a long time.
But it also pointed out that up to 2100MW's new energy generation (mainly from wind and solar) and storage capacity would be added to the grid in time for the summer.