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SA Government's power legislation 'puts South Australians first'

12:44 UTC+8 March 28, 2017 | Nick Harmsen And Sara Garcia

Jay Weatherill and Tom Koutsantonis say the legislation will see South Australians put first. (AAP: David Mariuz)

The South Australian Government has introduced legislation to give the Energy Minister the power to direct electricity generators to turn on when required — a move it says would have prevented the September statewide blackout.

The measure has been borne out of frustration that the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) ordered a power cut to tens of thousands of homes in February during a heatwave, when a shortfall in supply was looming.

A second unit at Pelican Point sat idle at the time, and the Government said AEMO should have directed it to switch on.

Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the powers would have also prevented the statewide blackout on September 28 as he would have ramped up generation in South Australia in preparation for the catastrophic event.

"We would have constrained the interconnector in the morning as I asked AEMO and there would have been more South Australian generation on," Mr Koutsantonis said.

"[I asked and they responded] there wasn't a credible contingency to constrain the interconnector."

Mr Koutsantonis said the powers the Government was seeking currently exist under a state of emergency.

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But he said he needed the power to prevent a state of emergency in the first place.

"What we're doing is extending those powers before an emergency situation exists to make sure we can avoid it," he said.

"These powers will give me the ability to direct either AEMO or direct generators individually and direct individuals.

"That power will ensure that market power is not the driving aspect of our energy security in this state."

Premier Jay Weatherill said the current system was "broken" and put "profits before people".

"We're taking back control and putting South Australians first," he said.

The Government introduced the bill this morning and called on an immediate debate.

The Opposition tried to block the debate, but failed.

"I don't mind that they don't have a plan, but get out of the way and don't stop us from implementing our plan," Mr Weatherill said.

AEMO defends its actions following state blackout

AEMO has released its final report into the blackout, in which it found overly sensitive protection mechanisms in some South Australian wind farms were to blame.

It also defended itself against accusations it took too long to restore the system after the blackout.

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South Australia's renewables-heavy power mix was a factor in the statewide blackout in September, a new report by the Australian Energy Market Operator confirms.

While power to most of the state was restored by midnight, some areas of the state including Eyre Peninsula were without power for days.

"The time to restore the majority of the load was in line with restoration times experienced in other recent power system restoration times experienced in other power system restorations in Australia and elsewhere around the world," the report said.

Earlier versions of the report revealed failures with two unnamed 'system restart' generators which AEMO uses to power up the grid in the event of a statewide blackout.

The final report reveals the Quarantine Power Station system restart generator failed due to the switching sequence used.

AEMO said measures have been put in place and tested to remedy this.

The second restart generator, a diesel unit at Mintaro, tripped soon after starting.

AEMO said this did not delay the restoration process because the generator "cannot by itself restore large generating units in the Torrens Island area".

Power was eventually restored to the state's biggest generators in the Torrens Island region via the Heywood Interconnector.

The damage to transmission lines in the state's mid-north left regions in the Upper Spencer Gulf and Eyre Peninsula disconnected from the grid for much longer.

Police direct traffic in Adelaide CBD after blackout Photo: Power was restored to Adelaide by midnight the night of the blackout. (AAP: David Mariuz)

This problem was exemplified by the failure of three emergency generators in Port Lincoln, designed to keep the Eyre Peninsula powered up in the event of a transmission fault on the long, skinny transmission line around Spencer Gulf.

AEMO's report said the owner of those generators, Engie, has investigated its operation since the blackout.

It said the failure of two of the generators was due to extreme weather including heavy rain, wind and lightning.

It said stability issues forced the third generator offline after the first two tripped.

The report said Engie has since adjusted the unit's control settings and upgraded some equipment.

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