Heatwave conditions continue but South Australia is likely to escape the immediate need for further blackouts from sustained pressure on the state's energy network.
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis says SA is confident of having sufficient electricity supplies on both Friday and Saturday as he continues to question the management of the national market over this week's power cuts.
Mr Koutsantonis says the Australian Energy Market Operator had "got caught napping" and had "dropped the ball" in its management of South Australia's electricity supplies.
He said AEMO had failed to bring on extra generation that was available, opting instead for load shedding to reduce demand.
"That's a failure of demand management, that's a failure of monitoring the weather and conditions and want's going on in the market," the minister told reporters on Friday.
Mr Koutsantonis also questioned why NSW could get 48 hours notice of potential load shedding on Friday, but no such warning had been given to SA.
AEMO manager David Swift said the organisation had not been "asleep at the wheel" and had predicted high demand across SA on Wednesday.
But he said consumption soared to record levels as the temperatures climbed into the 40s.
"We did see the demand would be high - we just didn't get it exactly right," Mr Swift told a Senate inquiry in Canberra.
The blackouts on Wednesday pulled the plug on about 90,000 consumers across Adelaide and regional SA, with outages lasting about 40 minutes.
The use of a second unit at Adelaide's Pelican Point gas power station on Thursday avoided load shedding, despite Adelaide again recording a maximum above 41C and some regional centres pushing as high as 48C.
On Friday, the mercury soared towards 40C again again, continuing concerns for vulnerable residents, particularly the elderly or those with underlying illnesses.
SA Health said by early on Friday 96 people had gone to hospitals for heat-related conditions with 39 of those admitted for ongoing treatment.
Amid its growing frustration with the National Electricity Market had vowed to "go it alone" and intervene in a dramatic way, though details of its plans are yet to be revealed.
For its part the state opposition has backed federal government calls for SA to try to reopen a coal-fired power in the state's north.
Although Flinders Power said its Northern Power Station, which was closed last year, remained uneconomical and its demolition would continue.
