Protection mechanism in tornado-hit turbines caused drop in power that led to entire system being tripped, Aemo says

The state-wide blackout in South Australia which prompted a national political storm over energy policy was caused by extreme weather, which triggered a cascading sequence resulting in the state separating from the national energy market, according to a final assessment from the Australian Energy Market Operator.

The final report finds that the state’s windfarms rode out the grid disturbances prompted by the loss of key transmission lines during two tornadoes with wind speeds between 190 and 260 km/h – but the activation of a protection mechanism in the turbines triggered a sustained reduction in power in the state, with a drop of 456MW over a period of less than seven seconds.

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Source: Guardian Climate Change