AEMO activates reserve trader mechanism for NSW on Thursday

PRESS RELEASE

There is currently a forecast Lack of Reserve 2 (LOR2) market notice issued for 2:30pm to 6pm Thursday 23 January in NSW due to very high temperatures, the ongoing impact of severe NSW bushfires on transmission assets, and unscheduled coal generation outages.

The LOR notice signals a reduction in pre-determined electricity reserve levels, and is seeking a response from the market, through either increased generator supply or large industrial/commercial businesses reducing their demand.

At 2:30pm today, no impact to consumers is expected with approximately 463 MW of reserves forecast for today’s peak-demand period in NSW (2:30pm to 7:30pm). However, AEMO will continue to closely monitor the dynamic situation and provide further updates.

To meet NSW consumers’ energy requirements and maintain power system security, AEMO has commenced activation with Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) panel members to secure off-market generation and demand management reserve contracts.

To help minimise the impact of supply shortfalls this afternoon, consumers can temporarily reduce their energy usage where it is safe and possible, by avoiding running multiple appliances at once, setting air conditioners to 24 degrees, and temporarily switching off pool pumps.

AEMO acknowledges that the health and wellbeing of consumers remains the highest priority, so please only conserve energy if safe to do so.

For more information, please refer to AEMO’s fact sheets and explainers:

• Energy saving tips
• Electricity reserve levels and Lack of Reserve market notices
• Emergency reserves contracts (RERT)
• Load shedding