As Australia’s power crisis subsides, the energy market operator says it will lift the suspension of the country’s primary wholesale electricity market.
On Thursday, the limits will be temporarily withdrawn until a final decision is reached.
As a result of an unusual price increase, the company ceased trading on the platform last week.
Officials also asked residents in New South Wales to conserve energy out of fear of power shortages.
Sydney, the country’s largest city, is located in the state, which has a population of roughly 8 million.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) stated in a statement on Wednesday that it had “seen a clear improvement in market circumstances” and that trade would resume at 04:00 Sydney time on Thursday (19:00 BST Wednesday).
It said that it would observe the market for at least 24 hours before deciding whether to lift the restriction officially.
Aemo’s chief executive, Daniel Westerman, stated in a televised media conference that approximately 4,000 megawatts of generation have returned to service since last week same time. As a result, the likelihood of a power outage has decreased significantly.
Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and liquefied natural gas, but since last month it has been experiencing a power crisis.
Three-quarters of its electricity is still generated using coal, and it has been accused of a long time of not doing enough to reduce emissions by investing in renewables.
In recent weeks, the United States has suffered the effects of coal supply shortages, outages at multiple coal-fired power facilities, and surging global energy prices.
In the meantime, energy demand has increased due to a cold snap and the opening of Australia’s economy with the removal of Covid-19 limitations.
All of these factors contributed to wholesale electricity prices exceeding the A$300 (£170; $208) per megawatt-hour price ceiling imposed by Aemo.
Nonetheless, this limit was below the cost of production for several generators, that chose to withhold capacity.
Aemo took the unprecedented step of halting the market on Wednesday and said that it would set prices directly and pay generators for the deficit.
It also requested that New South Wales residents “temporarily decrease their energy consumption.”
Mr. Westerman stated at the time that Aemo “placed grid security and keeping the lights on above anything else.”
We requested generators to bid their plant back into the system, and this is occurring more frequently, providing us the greater sight of generation in real-time,” he continued.
