Victoria’s frail energy grid exposed on day of record heat and demand

Victoria's energy grid is not fit for purpose in a climate increasingly prone to extreme heat, according to the state's energy minister, after more than 200,000 people had their power cut on a day when Melbourne's temperature hit 42 degrees.

EnergyAustralia operates the Yallourn brown coal-fired
 power station in Victoria, which had multiple failures in the heat.CREDIT:

Lily D'Ambrosio said a huge generation failure from aging coal and gas generators on Friday, which left parts of more than 50 suburbs and townships powerless in the searing afternoon heat, underlined the urgent need to shift to renewables.

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor agreed Victoria's energy grid had let people down, but said the widespread blackouts emphasised the need for new, reliable sources of power generation.

The power plant failures and shutdown meant the state lost almost 20 per cent of its capacity to meet the demand on Friday.

Read the story from The Age by Adam Carey - “Victoria’s frail energy grid exposed on day of record heat and demand.”

(Angus Taylor’s observation: “the widespread blackouts emphasised the need for new, reliable sources of power generation” is code for coal-power and is little more than dog-whistling to his base - Robert McLean)

Melbourne to bake through another scorcher of a day as temperatures soar

Heat-weary Melburnians have received another blow with Friday's forecast revised up to a summer scorcher of 42 degrees.

Get set to swelter, or find a way to cool off -
like this young man at the Frankston Jetty. 

The Bureau of Meteorology issued the news late on Thursday, up from the previous forecast of 39 degrees.

Melbourne will toss and turn through another hot night with the mercury unlikely to dip below 25 degrees on Thursday.

The sudden surge in temperature predicted for Friday is due to a later than expected cool change, Bureau of Metrology senior forecaster Dean Stewart said.

Read Melissa Cunningham’s story from the Melbourne Age - “Melbourne to bake through another scorcher of a day as temperatures soar.”