So, what is load shedding?
Load shedding is a last resort measure that distributors enact to balance supply and demand of electricity across the National Electricity Market (the NEM). When there’s not enough power supply to meet the demand of electricity within the country, or states, the grid may become unstable. Instability poses a number of risks including damage to essential equipment within the grid and large rolling blackouts affecting a large amount of households.
To avoid the risk of instability, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) – who is responsible for maintaining the reliability and security of the NEM – makes the decision on how much electricity consumption needs to be reduced and distributors determine how their portion of the load will be shed across their network to help balance demand.
It’s important to note that AEMO is the only body that can direct distributors to load shed.
Why does load shedding happen?
Though load shedding is a last resort it may be necessary due to a number of factors including:
- A major electricity generator going offline unexpectedly due to equipment failure
- Damage to assets due to severe weather events like storms, cyclones and bushfires.
- Heatwave conditions resulting in very high levels of power consumption by customers.
Distributors do their best to minimise impacts on sensitive sites like hospitals and nursing homes where people depend on electricity for their safety. If you have a condition which requires you to have Life Support equipment, in the event you’re affected by load shedding, it’s recommended you enact your back-up plan or go to the nearest hospital to ensure your safety.
When load shedding is necessary, distributors usually ‘share the load’ by scheduling blackouts that ‘roll’ across various suburbs or points of the grid to minimise the impact on one specific area.
Will my power be turned off?
If load shedding is enacted and you’ll be affected, you may receive an SMS alert from your local distributor. We recommend checking their website to see whether they have an SMS alert service you can sign up for, as well as making sure your contact details are up to date on your Origin account.
Your local distributor is your best point of contact in an outage, our distributor directory can help you find yours. Distributors generally update their websites regularly, so these are a great first-point for updates.
Distributors can’t exclude individual households from load shedding, so if you have medical equipment at home which requires electricity to operate, it’s important to act on your back-up plan which should include suitable alternative arrangements for the times you are without power.
If you experience a medical emergency dial Triple Zero (000) immediately and ask for an ambulance.
How long will I lose power for?
The amount of time power will be off for varies depending on the situation. If load shedding is required – which can happen with very short notice for the distributors – for more than two hours, distributors may rotate the blackouts to lessen the impact on one specific group of customers.
Distributors usually update outage maps on their websites to advise restoration times, so it’s best to keep an eye on these to ensure you receive updates.
How do they select which areas to load shed?
No one suburb or area is specifically selected for load shedding. Instead, distributors usually spread the disruption across their network. As mentioned earlier, best endeavours are made to avoid interrupting sensitive loads like major hospitals and public transport where the loss of power presents a serious risk to public safety.
What do I do if I’m affected?
On particularly hot days, when there’s a publicised threat to energy security, to try and help avoid load shedding households should turn off non-essential appliances such as pool pumps, clothes dryers, washing machines and dishwashers or delay their usage until later in the evening when demand has died down. If using the air conditioner, set your temperature to 24°C, keep windows closed and close curtains/blinds to keep the sun out. It’s also important to keep yourself, and your pets, well hydrated.
