An independent investigation has been launched into South Australia's latest electricity dramas after an explosion and fire at an Adelaide power station threatened to cause more blackouts.
Three units at Adelaide's Torrens Island Power Station were cut from the network on Friday when a transformer operated by transmission company Electranet exploded.
The nearby Pelican Point Power Station tripped and disconnected from the network at the same time, robbing the state of about 600 megawatts of electricity.
Amid fears of blackouts, the Australian Energy Market Operator and the state government called on consumers to cut their power use, such as turning off unnecessary household appliances during the peak demand period in the late afternoon and early evening.
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis says consumers responded with a marked drop in demand.
"That restraint got us through the peak demand. We were able to maintain supply, no-one was load shed last night," Mr Koutsantonis said on Saturday.
"Last night we saw South Australia at its very best."
The loss of local capacity was also compensated by extra electricity moving from Victoria through the Heywood interconnector while solar and wind generation in SA were at high levels.
Electranet said the explosion and fire damaged the connection points on two generating units at Torrens Island.
Chief executive Steve Masters said work was underway to repair the damaged infrastructure.
"Of the two affected connection points, one is expected to be back in service within 24 hours, reconnecting 200 megawatts of generation capacity to the network," he said.
"However, the second connection point, which connects another 200 Megawatts of generation capacity, is estimated to take around two weeks to replace."
Mr Koustantonis said an independent investigation would be conducted to determine if the cause of the incident was a maintenance issue, a faulty equipment issue or simply an unexplainable event.
However, the minister said South Australia should have sufficient power on an ongoing basis to meet demand.
"This weekend we should be okay, there's plenty of available South Australian generation to meet demand," he said.
"There's plenty of South Australian sun, South Australian wind and South Australian gas."
AEMO has also directed extra generation capacity across the National Electricity Market to come on line.
