When viewing the Senate Select Committee, an AEMO representative addressing the Committee stated that it would take 4 hrs. to bring the plant to full operation.
Under this time constraint, I believe AEMO had no option but to initiate a load shed event. Whether you believe that AEMO instruct AEMO 4 hrs. in advance, where the plant operator did not have a contract to use gas as this event was not a state emergency, but an extreme heat event as the opposition Min. for Energy mentioned on the ABC.
Statement from AEMO:
"February 10, 2017 - 7:00 PM
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) welcomed the
opportunity to appear at today’s Select Committee into the Resilience
of Electricity Infrastructure in a Warming World to discuss AEMO’s
roles and responsibilities in maintaining power system security under
the existing National Electricity Law. This week in particular has
highlighted the complexities and challenges the energy industry faces
in managing short-notice generation capacity unavailability amid
prolonged high temperatures and increasing electricity consumption in
the various regions across the National Electricity Market (NEM).
The emergency load shedding that occurred on Wednesday, 8 February
2017 in South Australia was implemented only as a last resort
following a combination of factors that transpired very close to the
evening peak period.
Based on where our investigations are at, AEMO does not accept
public statements being made questioning AEMO’s capability or that we
didn’t manage the power system in a safe, secure state. Further, AEMO
does not accept the assertions that some generators that were
available to enter into the market could not do so. AEMO would like to
see incidents such as what occurred on Wednesday as an example of the
complexities of the evolving power system for which we can all learn
from.
AEMO will be responding to the questions received on notice at
today’s hearing and will look to make public the facts in a report in
the next week.
The safety of the community is the energy industry’s number one
priority during power system emergencies, and AEMO continues to work
closely with the state governments and generators in all NEM regions
to manage power system conditions and minimise the impacts of possible
localised load shedding on consumers.
AEMO continues to closely monitor energy supply and demand across
the NEM and publish updates accordingly.
ENDS"
IAEA
Posted Friday 10 Feb 2017 @ 10:55:33 pm from IP
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