Dark times: Why Australia has asked its residents to turn off their lights every day for two hours

If things continue as they are, there’s a huge chance that Australia will be plunged into darkness. The country is battling an energy crisis and the situation turned grave on Thursday with Australia’s energy minister Chris Bowen saying people should not use electricity for two hours every evening if they “have a choice”.

Bowen asked people living in New South Wales to conserve as much power as possible.

“If you have a choice about when to run certain items, don’t run them from 6 to 8 (in the evening),” he said during a televised media conference in Canberra.

But what exactly has gone wrong? Why is Australia suffering from such an energy problem? What is the effect of such a situation?

Here’s everything you want to know about the condition in Australia and what can be done to solve it.

What’s gone wrong?

Parts of Australia — South Australia, New South Wales (NSW), Victoria and Queensland — have all been suffering power outages, with Victoria and NSW facing the greatest pressure.

On Wednesday, Australia’s main wholesale electricity market was suspended by regulators for the first time in its history.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) in a statement said, “Aemo has determined that it is necessary to suspend the spot market in all regions (of the NEM) because it has become impossible to operate the market within the rules,” the regulator said. The NEM covers all of Australia except for the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Hospitals have also been ordered to reduce their electricity use; staff at the Sydney Local Health District were sent an urgent email, asking that electricity be conserved in all non-clinical settings.

Staff were also asked to turn off electrical equipment not being used and to stop using printers as residents across NSW were earlier issued a similar warning.

NSW treasurer Matt Kean Matt Kean begged residents not to run dishwashers until late at night, and Sydney hospital staff were ordered to conserve power in all non-clinical settings.

What’s the reason for the crisis?

The Australian energy crisis, as per a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, is a “a complex confluence of events, here and offshore, overlaid on some long term structural developments within the market.”

Three-quarters of Australia’s energy comes from using coal.

BBC reports that production at two mines that supply the market’s biggest coal-fired station in New South Wales has been cut owing to technical issues. Additionally, flooding earlier this year hit some coal mines in New South Wales and Queensland.

With these disruptions, energy creation was bound to be affected.

It has also been reported that around a quarter of Australia’s coal-fired electricity generating capacity is currently out of service due to unexpected outages and scheduled maintenance. Daily Mail reported that about 1800MW of coal-fired power was not operating in Queensland and 1200MW of capacity offline in the states of NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

Another reason could be attributed to the Russia-Ukraine war; some electricity producers have been forced to slow down on production owing to the soaring global gas prices.

Meanwhile, demand for energy has jumped as the temperatures took a plunge and the economy opened up wider after COVID-19 restrictions were eased.

The energy shortage also coincides with reduced output from solar and wind farms in evening hours.

Politicos’ react

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held an emergency meeting with industry and union leaders on Thursday to discuss the growing crisis.

He was also lambasted the previous government for putting politics ahead of policy.

Albanese also asked energy companies to prioritise its customers over profits. “My message to the energy companies is that they have a responsibility to their customers, whether they be households or businesses, to do the right thing,” he told ABC Radio host Paul Culliver.

Victorian state Liberal MP Tim Smith came down hard on all past governments, with the Daily Mail quoting him as saying, “This is the result of two-and-a-half decades of policy failures by all sides of politics. Like a third world country, we are rationing power in the two first weeks of winter.”

Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger said Australia had become “an international laughing stock” over the crisis.

“We’ve got more uranium, oil, gas, gold, diamonds, whatever. We are the most … energy rich country on the globe,” he told Sky News on Wednesday night. “We’re exploding with natural resources, yet we have an energy crisis. What a farce.”

Solutions

While there’s very little that can be done right away, there are a few measures that the Australian government can take to ensure that such a situation doesn’t arise again.

An inquiry should be set up to probe why so many coal-generated power plants were been unavailable during April, May and June.

Moreover, more investments should be made into renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

Other countries in the dark

Australia is not alone in its energy crisis. Pakistan too is struggling with the government imposing various measures to save energy.

Pakistan has reverted to a five-day workweek and also laid down various curbs such as banning weddings and ordering the closure of markets.

According to a June 7 report in the Daily Times, Karachi was experiencing outages going up to 15 hours, while Lahore was without power for nearly 12 hours.

The situation is severe in Sri Lanka too. The island nation, known for its beaches and laid-back life, is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, plunging the country into hours and hours of darkness.

Sri Lanka, too, announced a four-day workweek for government employees, in an attempt to save energy and fend off a food shortage.

With inputs from agencies

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