Queensland Blackout is the Start of State-Wide Power Issues

Half a million properties across the state were affected by one of Queensland’s largest power outages, however this could just be the beginning of power issues for the state.

Power was not only cut to homes and businesses but shopping centres, hundreds of traffic lights, and some hospitals were left relying on backup generators for a short time.

It was triggered by a turbine fire at the Callide power station near Biloela in Central Queensland. 

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan told Nine that there were concerns more outages and possible price hikes could be on the way as a result. 

“We avoided rolling blackouts like North Korea in Queensland but they’re at risk in the future because the demand will be high as winter gets colder and of course if this lasts into summer it could even be worse, so we’ve just got to get back into investing in real power sources.”

Energy Economist Professor Bruce Mountain has told the ABC it could take time before it's completely sorted. 

“We’ve had very major coal and gas fire generators have turbine problems and even ones which are quite young like these, and some of them have been out for months.”

The power outage is the state’s worst electricity outage since 1985.

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