The union for workers in the UK energy sector, GMB, is asking for answers as to the reason for the widespread power cuts across Australia following the move from fossil fuels to renewable resources. The union is hoping that if we can understand why the power cuts have occurred, the UK can then learn from this and not repeat the same mistakes that Australia made.

Over the course of the last five months there have been four cases of major power cuts across various different states in Australia, one of which occurred in September and affected a staggering 1.7 million people. There is now an urgent need for organisations such as Ofgem, National Grid and the energy select committee to evaluate the lessons learnt from these power cuts, and work out what occurred during the switch to renewable sources that triggered the problems.

Preliminary indications suggest that the transmission systems are not able to cope with the scale of power that has to be moved from one part of the country to another when renewable sources are not generating supplies at times of peak demand in the areas the renewable sources are created, commented Justin Bowden, the GMB National Secretary for the Energy Sector. The same changes from fossil fuels to renewable sources are taking place in the UK so it is essential that lessons are learnt from these power cuts in Australia.

Bowden has expressed GMB’s concern that the UK will experience the same problems if nothing is done to prevent it, because during times of peak demand the fossil fuel stations are phased out before the new fleet of nuclear power stations is on stream.

So will UK organisations begin to take a serious look into the Australian power cuts? Hopefully GMB’s call for action will work, and we will not experience the same problems here in the UK.