Power supplies could be stretched to limit

Source: SMH|Published: Wednesday January 24, 4:01 PM

Power supplies in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia could be stretched to the limit if the three states experience heatwaves simultaneously.

But as Victorians won a reprieve from a forecast top of 34 today with an unexpected cool change, the national power authority said supplies remained in "reasonable shape".

The National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) said there would not be any problems with power supplies, barring unforeseen events such as bushfires or equipment failures.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of big consumers, such as aluminium smelters, have agreed to reduce consumption when there is great stress on the system.

NEMMCO spokesman Paul Price said rather than build a new generator for a few days' work each year, it was more efficient for big power users to modify their behaviour on very hot days.

He said a number of commercial operators had contractual arrangements with electricity suppliers to stop operations when demand forced up the price of power.

Meanwhile, Acting Premier John Thwaites said he was confident that Victoria's power supplies would hold up during the hot weather.

He said the government had been advised by NEMMCO that there was sufficient power within the system for Victoria over the next few days of hot weather.

"While it will be tight because it will be very hot around Australia there is sufficient power," Mr Thwaites told reporters.

He said that given there was a national power system, there needed to be better interconnection between the states.

"The current system does not give enough of a connection between the states and we are working on that, but the advice we have received is that we do have sufficient power so for the foreseeable future that's satisfactory."

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0101/24/A16129-2001Jan24.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 24, 2001