Half a million Victorian homes without power as extreme weather smashes state

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Half a million Victorian homes were blacked out on Tuesday afternoon as extreme weather brought down power lines and the state’s largest coal generator, forcing the energy market operator to order electricity be shut off to some houses.

The Australian Energy Market Operator declared a “significant power system event” on Tuesday afternoon after storms brought down power lines around Melbourne and generators at Loy Yang A went offline.

Generators at Loy Yang A went offline on Tuesday.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

The operator said the destruction of part of a 500-kilovolt transmission line west of Melbourne from heavy storms triggered a domino effect across the state’s energy network.

It took 1000 megawatts out of the system and tripped all four units at coal-fired Loy Yang A, forcing them to shut down. One unit is back up and running.

The shutdown of the power plant removed 2.3 gigawatts of generation from the system. The spot price of electricity in Victoria soared above $16,000 per megawatt hour – it was $93 a megawatt hour in NSW – as it was forced to import from other states.

In an effort to keep the grid stable, AEMO also began “load shedding” to force blackouts on parts of the network.

In a statement on social media website X, Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said she had met with the head of AEMO and confirmed 500,000 customers had lost power.

“One unit at Loy Yang A power station has come back online and as a result forced load shedding is no longer required to maintain grid stability,” she said.

“The situation remains volatile. I’ll continue to provide updates as they become available.”

A statement from AEMO said it was investigating the cause of the event, which meant 500-kilovolt transmission lines from Moorabool to Sydenham had been tripped and multiple generators had been disconnected from the grid.

“Controlled load shedding is a mechanism AEMO uses as an absolute last resort to protect system security and prevent long-term damage to system infrastructure,” they said.

Wild weather has brought hail to parts of Melbourne as two out-of-control bushfires burn near a popular tourist town in the Grampians National Park.

More to come