The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) report into last week’s electricity rationing that impacted 90,000 SA households and businesses is a wake-up call for South Australia.

“South Australians are at the mercy of the weather and overly reliant on electricity generated in Victoria after 15 years of Labor,” said Shadow Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

“The wind stopped blowing last week and tens of thousands of people had their power turned off.

“That is a totally unacceptable situation that must be immediately addressed.”

At the time of the electricity rationing last week, wind farms in South Australia were generating just 3 per cent of the State’s electricity. By contrast, 23.5 per cent of the State’s electricity was coming from predominantly coal generation in the privatised Victorian system.

“What happened last week is going to happen again unless the Weatherill Labor Government wakes up and realises that our generation mix is wrong,” said Mr van Holst Pellekaan.

“While a large portion of the rationing that occurred last week was avoidable, we still faced a generation shortfall.

“That problem will happen again unless we fix our generation mix – South Australia desperately needs more reliable baseload generation.

“SA Power Networks has apologised for unnecessarily cutting off 60,000 customers but that isn’t enough.

“Penalties must be investigated for cutting off power to more customers than was necessary.

“South Australians are sick of the blackouts and the Weatherill Labor Government’s excuses.”