Some wind farms and commercial solar systems in South Australia (SA) could be switched off and rooftop solar curtailed later this week as work continues to repair the state’s electricity interconnector with Victoria.
The link was cut during violent storms on Saturday, which brought down a 50-metre transmission tower near Tailem Bend, east of Adelaide.
With the interconnector out of action, SA is unable to export excess power to Victoria.
ElectraNet chief executive Simon Emms said work to construct a temporary tower at Tailem Bend should be complete this weekend, allowing the link to the national power grid to be re-established.
He said the construction of a new permanent tower was expected to take several months.
With fine weather forecast across SA later this week, Emms said Thursday was looming as the most crucial day when the state would have too much power, forcing some to be dialled back to maintain grid stability.
“On Thursday, we‘ll work with the Australian Energy Market Operator and SA Power Networks. In the first step, they’ll turn off wind farms and commercial solar farms to minimise the impact on rooftop solar,” he said.
“To maintain system security, we need a certain number of gas-fired units on, so that requires the dialling down of the renewable generation during the peak period.”
On Saturday, SA was hit with more than 423,000 lightning strikes, damaging winds and torrential rain, causing widespread damage, with more than 500 reports of wires down and minor flooding.
In the worst blackout since the statewide outage in 2016, about 163,000 properties lost electricity supplies, with just under 12,000 still without services on Tuesday morning.
The remaining disruptions were widespread and included areas across the Adelaide Hills and suburbs, in the mid-north and through the Riverland.
SA Power Networks said it had mobilised all possible resources and had brought in help from interstate.
“Rebuilding and repairing the network and restoring power will continue into Tuesday and possibly beyond,” head of corporate affairs Paul Roberts said.
The power cuts forced 46 schools across SA to close on Monday, with 33 expected to remain closed on Tuesday.
Across the weekend, the State Emergency Service responded to more than 2000 calls for help, with SA Premier Peter Malinauskas praising the efforts of volunteers.
“Most South Australians are inside when these weather events happen. Our volunteers are running towards their stations and their trucks to get out there and help people,” he said.
“Every time one of these events occurs, and we see volunteers running towards discomfort and danger, we know how lucky we are to have them.”
In SA’s 2016 statewide blackout, storms damaged major transmission lines in the state’s mid-north, which tripped most of the SA power grid, blacking out about 850,000 properties.
