There is actually a whole political thing developing around this between renewable energy opponents and proponents. Ostensibly, the blackout was caused by a main transmission line (interstate feeder) being knocked over, disrupting frequency synchronisation, and activating failsafes.<p>However, because SA gets 40% of its energy from wind farms, it's now being suggested that having more local baseload capacity in the form of fossil fuels may have prevented this.<p>Ironically, the severity of the storm itself (it's being a called the worst storm in 50 years) is being blamed on climate change.<p>I guess we'll see what's true and what's not in due course.