"The barely avoided blackouts in NSW don't just show how the nation’s power systems are vulnerable to bushfire disasters. What this underscores, according to Audrey Zibelman, chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, is that “it’s a changed game” with regard to power reliability and climate-linked extreme weather events. The risk going forward is that climate change will lead to higher temperatures, more heatwaves, and more frequent demand spikes, and it is compounded by the fragility of the nation’s power supply due to the destabilisation of the national electricity grid by the climate and energy policy mess of the past decade." (The AFR View, 09/01/20)
