New Zealand residents were hit by widespread power outages Aug. 9, when the nation’s power system did not have enough generating capacity and the ensuing attempt to shed non-essential load was carried out in a chaotic way. Transpower, the national grid operator, said that when demand reached “an all time high,” there wasn’t enough electricity generation to provide for it, and the load-shedding ended up with thousands abruptly in the dark. Around North Island, for example, about 30,000 homes had power suddenly cut. Voices from locals to that of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, all are loudly voicing opinions about whom to blame and what went wrong. The spot price reached $300,000 per MWh.
“Unfortunately, there was not enough generation to meet demand,” Stephen Jay, general manager of Transpower operations, told Bloomberg. “As a result, Transpower had to ask all the local lines companies and large industrial users to reduce demand to help keep the system in balance.” People couldn’t warm their homes during the Winter cold.
