this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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Transpower warns of possible power shortages on Friday (www.rnz.co.nz)
submitted 6 months ago by Dave to c/newzealand
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The national electricity grid operator is warning of possible insufficient power generation to meet households' demand on Friday.

Transpower has issued a notice saying there was a risk that power generation and reserves would not meet demand between 7.30am-8.30am.

It said if power generators could not provide enough electricity, Transpower would manage demand to avoid a grid emergency.

"The system operator may instruct the grid owner to disconnect feeders without further notice to connected parties," it said.

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[–] throws_lemy 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for the information, yes it is a bit confusing for me, because the article doesn't explain about low water levels.

[–] Dave 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, the article doesn't say much at all. Water levels seem ok, so hard to know what the issue might be.

[–] throws_lemy 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I mean Taupo lake looks a bit low?

[–] Dave 1 points 6 months ago

The graph is in available GWh, which means it goes all the way to 0 before it stops being able to provide electricity. It's just at the low end of normal but we are coming out of summer so that's not surprising.

None of the lakes look like they can't produce at maximum for an hour to cover the shortfall. So I'd guess hydro isn't the problem. Hard to say why tomorrow is an issue though. Perhaps this snuck up on them, getting a fossil fuel power station up and running takes time, so maybe they could have covered it but weren't prepared?

I tried to find historical data on peak load but could only find live data on current load. So I'm all out of guesses!

[–] Longpork3 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Says in the article that some generators are down for required maintenance "ahead of the winter". Doesn't specify which type of generation or whether the maintenance needs to be carried out specifically to prepare for winter conditions though.

It would be nice to have a bit more detail, maybe justification for why maintenance of electrical plant can't be done at times of the year when demand is lower.

[–] Dave 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

When I first posted this article, it was about 100 words long and I quoted most of it in the body if my post. It seems they fleshed it out significantly! Nice to have an answer!

In the article they mention this cold weather is earlier than normal, they have the plants shut down ahead of the super cold weather and got caught out by the cold coming so early.