Australia’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Bowen on Thursday urged citizens to limit electricity consumption as much as possible, mainly between 6pm and 8pm, to avoid blackouts and ease the energy crisis.
“If you can choose when you want to use certain devices, don’t turn them on between 6 and 8,” Bowen told a news conference, noting that the government has asked for non-essential devices to be temporarily turned off.
The request comes after the war in Ukraine, rising fuel prices and the south’s winter have pushed up electricity costs in Australia, leading to supply problems due to government attempts to lower prices.
Several power plants, many running on coal and gas, were shut down after authorities capped prices on Sunday and said they could not cover production costs.
Although Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter, prices in the country are being impacted by global inflation.
Legacy renewable energy grid
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pointed out that while clean energy is the cheapest, there is a problem in Australia’s use of renewable energy as the country’s electricity grid is not adapted for the 21st century.
“Meanwhile, old coal plants are more prone to blackouts and blackouts because they’re old,” Albanese said at the same Bowen press conference in Canberra.
The Prime Minister said he would discuss energy issues with Australian state leaders tomorrow at the first such meeting his government has held since the Labor Party won last month’s general election.
In the face of this energy crisis, the government is also meeting its commitments to reduce pollutant emissions to combat the climate crisis.
For example, Australia today submitted the UN targets for reducing pollutant emissions by 43% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, a more ambitious target than the 26-28% set by the previous executive branch.
According to official data, Australia produced 507 million tons of coal in 2019, of which more than 80% was exported to other countries, and emitted 16.71 tons of CO2 per capita that year, surpassing countries like the United States, Japan, and China Great Britain . EFEgreen