Power cut again in sweltering SA

Four days of searing heat is taking a toll on South Australians with ambulance crews and the state's power supplies stretched to the limit.
Thousands of homes across Adelaide were affected by rolling power cuts on Friday as the demand for electricity surged to unprecedented levels.

The ambulance service continued to take emergency calls in record numbers.
It responded to more than 800 jobs on Thursday and while it was unable to say how
many were heat-related, the workload was up by 20 per cent.
Police said there was also an increase in sudden deaths across the city, although
authorities were unable to confirm if any could be attributed to the extreme
conditions.
Adelaide sweltered through its fourth day with temperatures above 40 degrees with
little relief in sight.
Temperatures in the city were forecast to remain either in the low 40s or the high
30s until at least the end of next week despite a mild change bringing some relief
to SA's coastal fringes.
As the heatwave continued, the National Electricity Market Management Company
(NEMMCO) ordered load shedding of 90 megawatts from the state's main transmission
network.
It was the second day in a row that power cuts had been required with supplies to an
estimated 95,000 homes in more than 40 suburbs turned off for short periods on
Thursday.
NEMMCO said extreme temperatures had affected power flows through the Basslink
interconnector between Victoria and Tasmania with the conditions and the record
demand for electricity reducing the output of a number of generators.
"The restriction in power flow through Basslink has reduced supply capacity in the
national grid," said NEMMCO spokesperson Paul Bird.
"As a result we have instructed load shedding of 90 megawatts (mw) in South
Australia to ensure that demand does not exceed available power supply."
The rolling power cuts in SA lasted about 30 minutes and were rotated through
various suburbs and regional locations.
NEMMCO said it was working closely with authorities to minimise the impact of the
cuts on customers and to restore normal supplies.
Peak power demand in SA surged to a record 3,300mw on Thursday and was expected to
go as high or marginally up on Friday.
The power cuts prompted incoming Australian Democrats MP David Winderlich to call on
the state government to dump its plans to increase the state's population by
400,000.
Mr Winderlich, who will fill a casual vacancy in the SA upper house in February,
said with power and water in short supply the government should put a freeze on
population growth.
"We can't even provide the basics to South Australia's current population," he said.