Temperatures were hot but unexceptional for early December and nothing compared to what can be expected for January and February. The Dampier and Parmelia pipelines had enough gas, Western Power had most of its you-beaut, imported standby generators ready, yet some metropolitan areas still experienced power blackouts on three consecutive days.

With high temperatures forecast for this week and an election due in February, the state-owned utility and its Labor masters will face heavy questioning if the blackouts become more widespread.

Businesses and residents in a south-eastern corridor of Perth lost power three times on consecutive evenings last week when demand exceeded Western Power’s ability to supply power to the area.

Western Power attributed last week’s blackouts to “overloads.”

Southern shopkeepers were forced to heavily discount their perishable goods on Thursday night, unsure of when power would be reconnected to their refrigerators and freezers.

Western Power has a stated capacity of around 3000MW and said last week’s demand peaked at around 2700MW when the temperature went above 35C twice, once to 37.1C on Thursday and to 36.9C the previous day.

Western Power warned of possible power interruptions in an advertisement last week, saying it expected “another close week” where demand may exceed supply due to the forecast high temperatures.