Grid demand records smashed as W.A. becomes hottest place on planet

Western Australia’s main grid has smashed its operational demand record as parts of the state became the hottest place on the planet over the weekend.

The Australian Energy Market Operator posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday that “operational demand”, reached 4,233 MW at 5.55pm (local time) on Sunday, beating the previous record of 4,170 MW on February 1.

AEMO says the supply mix at the time was 58 per cent gas, 32 per cent coal, 4.7 per cent wind and 2.3 per cent battery storage and 3.3 per cent “other.”

Rooftop solar is not included in “operational demand” and likely contributed around 300 MW to overall demand at the time of the operational demand record at 5.55pm, but would have dominated generation earlier in the day.

Unfortunately, AEMO’s publicly availably market dashboard is still not working properly after a change in market design late last year so it is not possible to show an accurate graph of how the various generation sources faired over the weekend.

Carnarvon recorded the highest temperature in the state on Sunday – 49.9°C, which is reportedly the world’s hottest temperature recorded this year, and it tied as the eighth-hottest temperature recorded in Australia. Temperatures were above 45°C in large parts of the state, and above 39°C in nearly all the state.

But the demand record could fall again on Monday. “As Western Australia continues to grapple with relentless heatwave conditions, electricity demand is expected to soar once again today, following yesterday’s new demand record,” AEMO wrote in its Twitter/X post.