Australians urged to switch off lights over surging energy prices
Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister of climate change and energy, has urged households in New South Wales including Sydney to switch off their lights. This is due to surging energy prices amid crisis that continues to plague the country’s energy section.
Bowen says people should not use electricity for two hours every evening if they “have a choice”.
However, he added he was “confident” that blackouts could be avoided.
It comes after Australia’s main wholesale electricity market was suspended because of a surge in prices.
Mr Bowen asked people living in New South Wales to conserve as much power as possible.
“If you have a choice about when to run certain items, don’t run them from 6 to 8 [in the evening],” he said during a televised media conference in Canberra.
According to the BBC, Australia – the world’s biggest exporters of coal and liquefied natural gas, has been struggling with a power crisis since last month. Three quarters of the country’s electricity is still generated using coal.
In recent weeks, Australia has seen disruptions to coal supplies, leading to power outages at several coal-fired power plants and soaring global energy prices.
Around a quarter of Australia’s coal-fired electricity generating capacity is currently out of service due to
