https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/30/australias-electricity-grid-could-run-with-75-renewables-market-operator-says
[links in online article]
Australia's electricity grid could run with 75% renewables, market
operator says
Getting the regulations right will allow the secure expansion of wind
and solar power, study finds
Adam Morton Environment editor
29 Apr 2020
Australia already has the technical capacity to safely run a power grid
in which 75% of the electricity comes from wind and solar and, if it
gets regulations right, should occasionally reach this level within five
years.
A study by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) looking at how
to incorporate more renewable energy into the system while maintaining
grid security found wind and solar capacity was increasing rapidly, but
the operation of the electricity market could hold it back unless
settings were changed.
Audrey Zibelman, Aemo’s chief executive, said the study made it clear
that “operating approaches and market frameworks” were becoming less
effective as more renewable energy was injected into the grid.
“Australia already has the technical capability to safely operate a
power system where three quarters of our energy at times comes from wind
and solar generation,” she said.
“However, to do so requires changes in our markets and regulatory
requirements. Otherwise, Aemo will be required to limit the contribution
of these wind and solar resources to 50% or 60% of electricity supply at
any point in time, even though they are the lowest cost way of providing
electricity.”
The overall share of renewable energy in the National Electricity Market
(NEM) reached 26% over the past month, according to the website Open
NEM. It has occasionally risen to more than 50% for brief sunny and
windy periods when demand for heating and air-conditioning was low.
The Aemo study, published on Thursday, calls for changes well before
2025 to allow greater use of clean energy, including the introduction of
new standards to maximise the potential of rooftop solar panels and
construction of new transmission lines.
It says Aemo found no insurmountable reasons why the grid could not not
operate securely at even higher levels of wind and solar generation
after 2025, especially given the pace of technological advancement.
Key challenges to overcome in the short term include increasing
variability and uncertainty in energy supply, dealing with changes in
frequency and system strength, and the impact of greater generation from
distributed sources, which differ from the traditional model of each
state having a handful of large power plants.
The report comes as Aemo celebrates steps taken last week to allow
energy generated at five solar farms in western Victoria and
south-western New South Wales to resume full power supply into the grid
after stability issues were dealt with. The plants had been limited to
half capacity for eight months due to grid congestion.
Audrey Zibelman (@aazibelman)
A great bit of news on Friday evening - thanks for everyone’s help
and a first for this use of technology https://t.co/poVyPjxit2
April 24, 2020
The Clean Energy Council has warned, and academics have found, that
transmission and storage limitations are among the greatest roadblocks
to the expansion of renewable energy.
There has also been criticism of the Australian Electricity Market
Commission, which sets rules for the grid, as being resistant to changes
that would accelerate the influx of relatively cheap, variable clean energy.
The report does not mention another often raised roadblock to future
clean energy investment: the lack of an overarching national policy to
guide the closure and replacement of coal-fired plants.
The National Electricity Market, which covers the grid-connected country
bar Western Australia and the Northern Territory, already has 17
gigawatts of wind and solar capacity.
Aemo found under a “central” scenario mapped before the onset of
Covid-19 that this could increase to 27 gigawatts by 2025.
Zibelman said Aemo did not underestimate the scale of the work required
to successfully adapt the national market, and said the report – the
first in a multi-year project – would have far-reaching implications for
the energy sector.
“Given the pace and complexity of change in the [market], the study
highlights the need for flexible market and regulatory frameworks that
can adapt swiftly and effectively as our understanding of the changing
power system evolves,” she said.
In a statement on Thursday, the energy and emissions reduction minister,
Angus Taylor, said the report highlighted the challenges of integrating
record amounts of renewable energy into the grid.
Taylor said the study recognised solar and wind energy “aren’t enough”,
and the inertia in the system provided by synchronous generation would
be crucial to maintaining grid security. He said an example of
synchronous generation was a gas-fired plant, which runs on fossil fuel.
It follows Taylor last week saying he wanted a “gas-fired recovery” from
the Covid-19 pandemic.
=====================================
To subscribe, unsubscribe, turn vacation mode on or off,
or carry out other user-actions for this list, visit
https://www.freelists.org/list/keiths-list
Note: new climate change website is now in pre-launch
Visit https://www.10n10.ca/e/index.shtml
