South Australia's statewide blackout 10 years on: Energy debate still raging

It's been 10 years since a statewide blackout left South Australia in darkness, but the debate over the state's electricity future remains as contentious as ever.

On September 28, 2016, a tempestuous spring afternoon, power was cut to over 850,000 properties and approximately 1.7 million residents, leaving the state in a state of emergency.

Avivid recollection

Labor MP Tom Koutsantonis, who was the state's energy minister at the time, recalled the moment the blackout began. "I was actually in the parliament on my feet moving legislation relating to the National Electricity Market (NEM)," he said recently.

Mr Koutsantonis' first inkling that something was wrong was prompted by an apparent malfunction at the entrance to the parliamentary chamber. "I heard the magnets in the parliament [doors] release and all the doors suddenly open or close, depending on their position," he said.

Suspecting there had been "some sort of brownout", he was then told by an advisor that what had occurred was far worse than that.

A 'one-in-50-year storm'

Energy industry analyst Danny Price was monitoring the situation closely from his computer. "I just saw demand drop off a cliff, so I knew straightaway it was a blackout," he said. "I wasn't surprised — I was watching the weather in South Australia for a day or two beforehand. You could see a very big storm was brewing."

While supply was slowly restored over the coming hours, some parts of the state were without power for more than two days.

An early estimate of the economic impact concluded that the blackout cost businesses more than $360 million.

'Cascading failure'

In a 2017 report, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) concluded that overly sensitive protection mechanisms in some of the state's wind farms were to blame.

"Activation of this protection feature resulted in a significant sustained power reduction for these wind farms," the report stated.

AEMO's executive general manager of operations Michael Gatt described the blackout as a "cascading failure" that was the result of a "highly complex sequence of events".

"The lessons learned from 2016 have informed industry-wide changes and risk reporting, which have strengthened the resilience of South Australia's power system and the broader National Electricity Market," he said.

Renewables and reliability

Mr Price believes renewables need the "big buffer" of thermal generation to ensure reliability. "The system is more fragile than it was back 10 years ago. Far more fragile," he warned.

Mr Koutsantonis agrees that a statewide blackout "could always happen again" — but departs company with Mr Price on the likeliest circumstances, and on the impact of batteries.

"[A blackout's] probably more likely to happen in a jurisdiction that has more thermal power than renewables, because of the reliance on big suppliers from one big location," he said.

"Battery storage is the obvious solution — and battery storage in the right places not only stabilises your grid, it saves consumers money [and] it allows you to put more renewables into the system."