Guest essay by Eric Worrall

South Australia’s green politicians recently demolished their last coal plant.

Record heat blackouts: Tens of thousands without power across South Australia and Victoria

By Gemma Bath

Lexie Jeuniewic

Nick Pearson

2:03am Jan 25, 2019

Tens of thousands were last night sweltering through a blackout on one of the hottest days in history after power was cut across large areas of South Australia and Victoria.

There were 76 outages across Adelaide, affecting more than 28,000 customers during the hottest day in the city’s history.

In Victoria, about 5800 properties were without power on an “oppressive” night of hot and humid weather.

“Crews continue to work through the night – we understand it’s uncomfortable being without power in the heat,” SA Power Networks said on Twitter.

“If your power goes off, turn off all appliances and leave a single switch in the ON position so you know when it’s been restored. Turn appliances on gradually when power is back.”

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Australian Energy Market Operator CEO Audrey Zibelman said an extra 400 megawatts had been added to the grid.

“We are going forward and reactivating our reserve power (of) 400MW of additional energy.”

“The system is being utilised to its maximum – what we need everyone to do is just be aware of that and over this peak period make sure that you are not wasting energy.”

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