Officials told Malcolm Turnbull a major gas plant shut down during the freak storm that plunged South Australia into blackout last September, with the malfunction caused by a lightning strike or an “automatic shutdown to protect generation assets”.



Documents obtained by the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute suggest a failure of gas power played a significant role in both the blackout, and during efforts to restart the power after the storm event.

Officials told the prime minister’s office early on 29 September the loss of major transmission lines during the storm, which led to a loss of wind power being generated and transmitted at the time, was “followed by the Torrens Island gas power station shutting down shortly afterwards”.

The briefing points out Torrens Island was “the biggest local power station online at the time”.

Later in the day on 29 September Turnbull attributed the loss of power in SA to “an extreme weather event that damaged a number of transmission line assets, knocking over towers and lines”.



The significant failure of gas fired power in the state on the day of the storm wasn’t referenced specifically by the prime minister in his comments immediately after the event.

Turnbull proceeded to make a point about the reliability of renewable energy. He noted renewables placed “strains and pressure on a grid” in contrast to “reliable” baseload power – which was a beginning of a political campaign the prime minister has waged subsequently against state-based renewable energy targets.

“I regret to say that a number of the state Labor governments have over the years set priorities and renewable targets that are extremely aggressive, extremely unrealistic, and have paid little or no attention to energy security,” Turnbull said the day after being given the advice about the gas failures in SA.

A briefing from officials copied to the prime minister’s office said it was “important not to speculate on how [the blackout] happened. There are processes in place which support a proper investigation by the Australian Energy Market Operator.”

Officials also told the prime minister on 29 September that after the storm the Australian Energy Market Operator “moved immediately to initiate the agreed system restart procedures and the power system emergency response plan”.

“Normally this would involve gas-fired power, but for unknown reasons both Quarantine and Mintaro stations were not available, so the restart relied on the Heywood interconnect.”

The problems with gas power in SA that manifested during the major blackout last September have also reoccured in subsequent events, including a blackout in the state last week that affected 40,000 people.

Senior executives from Aemo told a Senate committee last Friday the market operator issued market notices when demand for electricity soared last Wednesday, but there was no market response.

The evidence given by Aemo was there were three thermal generators in the state on the day that were not available to meet the surge in demand. This lack of availability was attributed to “technical issues”.

Labor on Monday went on the offensive, declaring the prime minister had ignored advice and context from his officials in order to make a political point.

The shadow minister for climate change, Mark Butler, said Turnbull “took a decision in September to use the SA blackout as an opportunity to start a campaign against renewable energy”.

“That campaign has not stopped since September.”

“What we need to see is a prime minister who recognises the gravity of the crisis emerging in this country and his deep responsibility to lead a mature discussion about how to deal with that crisis.”

But the prime minister told reporters the “left” and the Labor party were intent on misrepresenting his comments.

“Let me be very clear, of course windmills did not cause a blackout, the blackout, as I have said many times, was caused by a storm breaching transmission lines,” Turnbull said on Monday.

But he continued to argue “the introduction of a massive amount of wind energy … made the SA grid very vulnerable.”

“Very, very vulnerable indeed to breaches in transmission lines and the overloading or pressure on the interconnector with Victoria which, as you know, is bringing in coal-fired power from the Latrobe Valley.”

The briefing materials about communications between offices after the blackout were obtained by the Australian Institute under freedom of information laws.

The chief executive of the institute, Ben Oquist, said on Monday: “Not only was the government blaming renewables when they had clear advice to the contrary, they were also ignoring advice that linked the blackout to problems with gas supply.”

“These FOI documents show a government seemingly committed to ideological attack on renewables, prepared to ignore independent public servants advice on the real causes and therefore potential solutions.”