Blackout risk lingers in NSW as coal outages hit

Thousands of NSW households and businesses are facing a threat of rolling blackouts later this week even after the energy market operator called on the energy industry to cancel maintenance work amid a spate of unexpected outages at coal units and a blast of hot weather.

The squeeze over the next few days represents arguably the biggest test on the NSW power system since the closure of AGL Energy’s Liddell coal power station in April last year. It comes amid mounting unreliability of ageing coal power units as they near the end of their lives and are ramped up and down more often to fit alongside renewables.