Vales Point units trip on Monday 2nd February 2026

On Monday 2nd February we observed the trip of both Vales Point units.

In this case we were alerted two types of ez2view alerts:

1. Email notification that the units had switched off, at the time, and
2. Later once released to the market, SMS alert that a market notice containing keywords ‘load shed’ had been published.

No load shedding occurred

From the information available to us, there was no disconnection of bulk electrical load and AEMO didn’t instruct load shedding. Our alert catches ‘load shed’ so this was the phrasing that matched.   The notice was:

 
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notice ID 133232
Notice Type ID Emergency events/conditions
Notice Type Description MARKET
Issue Date Monday, 2 February 2026
External Reference Non-credible contingency event - NSW region - 02/02/2026
________________________________________________________________________________________________

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE.

Non-credible contingency event - NSW region - 02/02/2026

At 1342 hrs Vales Point Power Station Unit 5 and Unit 6 tripped.

AEMO did not instruct load shedding.

AEMO has not been advised of any disconnection of bulk electrical load.

The cause of this non credible contingency event is not known at this stage.

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

Over 2 intervals

We observed:

• VP6 output drop from 229 MW to 0MW in interval 13:45 and
• VP5, which was running at higher output, drop from 549 to 242 MW in interval 13:40 (not in line with target of 550 MW) and then to 0MW in interval 13:45.

The station dashboard in ez2view, shows station aggregate output:

Currently still off

At the time of writing, 08:00-ish on the 3rd, both units are reporting 0MW generation.

Return to service indicators

Things can change pretty quickly with return to service expectations. STPASA availability runs from the 2nd between 16:00 and 18:00 were different to what we see later on.

Using the run from 08:00 on the 3rd, the latest at time of writing, STPASA DUID availability indicates a return of VP6 on afternoon of Wednesday the 4th. VP5 is expected back on Saturday the 7th.