How Will Our Power Grids Cope During The Summer Ahead?

Did you know the amount of power blackouts you experience at home is expected to double unless there is action taken to boost the reliability of Australia’s energy supply?

While Australians were rugged up this winter, huge swathes of Europe and North America sweltered and burned through record temperatures. It was so bad that people died and were hospitalised from the heat alone.

That same El Nino weather pattern is expected to reach Australia this summer which means hot temperatures, surging demand for air conditioning and huge pressure on our energy supply. It’s a perfect storm for load shedding and major power outages. There are fears ageing coal fired generators will not be able to keep up and there is not enough renewable investment to fill the supply gap.

On today’s episode of The Briefing we speak with Professor Samantha Hepburn, an expert in environmental law research at Deakin University about what we need to do to safeguard our energy supply for the future.

Statistics on how much blackouts an individual consumer has experienced annually is about 200 minutes and the prediction is unless we address a lot of the reliability issues that may double.