THE FINAL REPORT ON SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S BLACKOUT:
WHAT HAPPENED?
* Fierce storms on September 28, 2016, including tornadoes with winds up to 260 km/h downed three major transmission lines in SA's mid-north.
* Nine wind farms switched off when their control settings reacted to disturbances in the power grid, leading to a surge of power flowing through the Heywood Interconnector between SA and Victoria. The interconnector tripped to protect itself, cutting power to SA's entire network.
* The Australian Energy Market Operator found that without this loss of power from the wind farms, the statewide blackout could have been avoided.
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WHAT'S NEXT?
* AEMO has made 19 recommendations. Three have already been actioned, relating to the operator doing more rigorous weather monitoring and improving its capacity to restart the SA system.
* The remainder, to be done by December, include AEMO better forecasting wind speeds and the impact on wind turbines and changing how it operates when SA is separated from the national grid.
* Control settings on wind farms were changed soon after the SA storm so they can ride out power disturbances.
