CANBERRA, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said on Wednesday it has lined up extra power reserves to prevent blackouts in anticipation of a hot and dry summer.
In the latest assessment of the energy market, the AEMO said there were extreme heatwaves, heightened risk of bushfires and the deteriorating reliability of some older coal-fired power generation.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has previously forecast that drought will continue in the summer, which runs from December through February, and is likely to be hotter and drier than normal, increasing the chances of heat waves.
Blackouts have been a feature of recent summers in Australia's southern states, with heatwaves bringing with them high demand for electricity and putting extra strain on gas and coal-fired generators.
"These risks add to the deteriorating reliability of some of the older coal generation plants," Audrey Zibelman, chief executive of AMEO, said in the report.
"Whilst unexpected events can and do happen, particularly when the power system is under significant pressure and most prone to failure, AEMO has worked diligently to prepare the power system appropriately, including the procurement of emergency resources."
In August, AEMO warned that up to 1.3 million households could go without power for hours in an extreme heatwave under a worst-case scenario.
"In any region, the actual occurrence of load shedding could be higher than forecast, and potentially significantly exceed the reliability standard, given particular combinations of weather events, plant outages, or bushfires," the report said on Wednesday.
In order to cope with expected demand, AEMO and Victoria, Australia's second-biggest state by population size, have secured 125 megawatts of extra reserves.
