The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) reported yesterday on the threat of blackouts around Australia.

In NSW, energy security had been relying heavily on Snowy 2.0 coming on line in 2026, but the project has been delayed several years (and also lost its CEO Paul Broad as he has no confidence in the new Federal Energy Minister, Chris Bowen).

So NSW now faces the threat of blackouts in 2025-26, after the closure of the Eraring Power Station. NSW Government documents I’ve obtained in the upper house confirm this forecast: the folly of Matt Kean’s mad rush to renewable energy (which can never operate 24/7).

How to prevent these blackouts is an urgent public policy issue for the March NSW election. Kean/Perrottet caused the problem, backed by their green allies in Labor, Nationals and the Greens.

Only One Nation and the Shooters opposed the disaster of Kean’s 2020 Electricity Roadmap which forced the closure of Eraring.

The Opposition Leader, Chris Minns, does a lot of interviews, so what is his policy to avoid the NSW blackouts forecast by AEMO? Fluff and stunts won’t get him out of the policy failure he voted for in parliament - the rush to go 100% renewables in less than a decade.

He and Perrottet should have listened to One Nation. We forecast the problem confirmed by AEMO yesterday.

Minns talks a lot about manufacturing, “Made In NSW”. But how will that fare with blackouts from 2025-26 onwards? Who would invest in our State knowing that the Government can’t keep the lights on?

Plus, can we keep BlueScope Steel here, without their coking coal resource security and NSW electricity prices double those in the United States (where BlueScope has other steel plants). No steel-making, no manufacturing.

What are Minns’ and Perrottet’s policies to keep the lights on in NSW given the alarming outlook released by AEMO? What is their policy to keep BlueScope at Port Kembla, especially after the Dendrobrium coal mine extension fell over earlier this month (due to government green-tape).

These leaders are good at flags on bridges, woke ideology and wasteful spending, but on urgent matters of substance like energy security, they are policy-free zones.

Throw Blackout Bowen into the mix and we can only fear the worst.