Power Cuts in South Australia 2016 and 2017 (in German only)

Original title: Stromausfälle in South Australia in den Jahren 2016 und 2017

With wind and solar energy accounting for 40% of its electricity generation, the state of South Australia (SA) is among the world's forerunners in the expansion of renewable energies. Like other parts of Australia, SA is affected by power cuts fairly often.

Particularly serious was the cut on 28.9.2016, which affected almost the entire population of the state, in part for more than 24 hours. This event triggered impassioned public and political debates in Australia. The Conservative federal government and parts of the press placed the responsibility on the supposedly unreliable renewable energies and attacked their proponents. On the other hand, SA’s Labor government argued that the causes of the power failure were more diverse.

This brief report describes the background and chain of events of 28 September 2016, discusses the causes of the power failure, and describes the subsequent political debate. Finally, conclusions and lessons learned are drawn. In addition, an overview of a minor power failure that occurred on 8 February 2017 is given.

Further publications in the series

• Die Wasserstoffdebatte in Australien (August 2019)
• Überblick über die australische Energiepolitik – Aktualisierung (Juli 2019)
• Auf dem Weg zur "National Energy Guarantee" – Aktueller Diskussionsstand um ein neues Instrument der australischen Energie- und Klimapolitik (Juni 2018)
• Überblick über die australische Energiepolitik (März 2017)
• Netzgekoppelte Speicher in Kalifornien – Analyse der Rahmenbedingungen für netzgekoppelte Speicher in Kalifornien (September 2019)
• Wasserstoffpolitik in Kalifornien (September 2019)
• Energiepolitik in der Region New England (Mai 2019)
• Offshore Wind Deployment in Germany, Facts and Policy Lessons (April 2019)
• Der größte US-Stromsystembetreiber PJM – Einführung und aktuelle Debatten (Oktober 2018)
• Power systems in the 2020s: What can Germany and the PJM region learn from each other? (Oktober 2018)
• Community Choice Aggregation – Kommunen in Kalifornien und anderen US-Bundesstaaten werden als CCA zum Stromversorger (August 2018)
• Übersicht über die Energiepolitik und -wirtschaft in Texas (Juni 2018)
• Die Debatte zur Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule - Strommarktpolitik unter Präsident Trump (Januar 2018)