Anthony Albanese’s climate change minister is given a new nickname as Aussies rage over rolling blackouts – and why many more are set to come

Labor Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has been dubbed ‘blackout Bowen’ after heatwave power cuts hit Australia’s most populous state.

Parts of Sydney suffered a power outage on Tuesday afternoon as temperatures rose to the mid to high 30s, while regions in southern NSW were also hit by power outages early on Wednesday morning, leaving 6,000 homes without electricity.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said it is working with industry to “manage electricity reliability during high demand heatwave conditions in NSW, with major power stations unavailable due to forced and planned outages”.

Energy market analyst Saul Kavonic claimed that the Albanian government’s “interference” in the market “was the cause.”

Mr Kavonic pointed to Labour’s gas deals, Minister Bowen’s Capacity Investment Scheme and government interference in the market as three areas where the electricity shortage could be addressed.

Fed-up Australians wondered whether green energy projects would be able to replace coal quickly enough to meet demand as it was phased out.

‘No one is building coal-fired power stations because government policy is to close them. Cheers Blackout Bowen,” someone wrote on X.

“And NSW Labor’s energy minister is now telling Sydneysiders to use less power during the heat… Welcome to Blackout Bowen’s Australia,” said another.

Australia’s electricity market operator warned there could be more power outages over the next three days as temperatures remain high in the state (pictured, Bondi on Wednesday)

‘Let me get this straight. We’re getting rid of our coal-fired power stations in Australia because of the climate crisis, but exporting our coal to China and Co. so they can use all their coal-fired power stations?’ a third wrote.

Mr Kavonic said the decommissioning of coal-fired power stations as they reach their expiry date has not been met with adequate replacement.

“The government and the regulator have been asleep at the wheel and only addressed this when the crisis situation arrived,” the analyst told 2GB.

“The multi-pronged approach that the Labor government has taken since coming to power has ensured that there is no redundancy in our energy sector… and this will also be felt in manufacturing, leading to job losses. ‘

Mr Kavonic said Labour’s Capacity Investment Scheme encourages investment in solar, wind and battery storage, but does not apply to LNG or coal projects, making them economically unviable.

He added that if the government were to issue a statement advising it to move away from directing the type of new electricity projects being developed, this would allow the market to fill the gap naturally through private investments.

Demands for portable generators have risen by as much as 60 per cent in NSW in recent days after the state’s Minister for Energy and Environment, Penny Sharpe, told residents to ration their electricity.

“Do you really need to have all the lights in the house on on really hot days?” she said during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

About 80 percent of natural gas produced in Australia is liquefied for export to Asian countries (photo Origin Energy’s Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas facility on Curtis Island in northern Queensland)

‘Should your air conditioning be set to 19 degrees? You don’t do that. But you know, I’m not giving any official advice at this point.”

According to the Australia Institute, $149 billion worth of liquefied natural gas has been exported from Australia royalty-free over the past four years, meaning Australians are not only not getting access to it but are also shortchanged in government revenue.

The energy market operator has warned of more power outages across the state after residents in southern NSW were affected on Wednesday morning.

Parts of Wagga Wagga, Culcairn, Henty, Uranquinty, Holbrook and surrounding areas are currently experiencing a power outage.

An Essential Energy spokesperson said power had been temporarily restored via a backfeeder line.

It said the outage was ’caused by an outage on the Transgrid transmission line between Wagga Wagga and Albury and is not related to load shedding’.

The spokesperson said it had been ‘temporarily resolved’ by 9am and confirmed that affected residents were informed of the power outage via text message on Wednesday.

Residents have also been encouraged to “stay at least eight meters away from fallen power lines or damaged electrical equipment.”

Transmission lines were blamed for the outage in southern NSW on Wednesday morning

The outage comes as a heatwave sweeps the state, sending temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius in densely populated areas of Sydney’s western suburbs.

AEMO confirmed it plans to use some of its emergency powers to continue electricity supplies in NSW as there is still a shortage of spare capacity.

To enable stable electricity supplies across the state, AEMO said it plans to start negotiations with companies to help reduce demand, known as the Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) program.

The RERT scheme is a rarely used system that ‘(protects) the reliability of the national electricity market’ due to increased demand for electricity during a heat wave.

On Tuesday, AEMO warned that energy supplies could be ‘at risk’ as sweltering heat continues until Wednesday.

“We’re experiencing some pretty unusually warm weather… and in fact that’s a heat wave in the summer when we’re in the spring,” said Daniel Westerman, CEO of AEMO.

Combined with planned maintenance work at three of the state’s four coal-fired power stations in Bayswater, Vales Point and Eraring, the AEMO warned residents of an ‘electricity supply crunch’.

“It is quite common for both generation and transmission to use periods in the fall and spring to carry out maintenance work that does need to take place,” he added.