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Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2019 7:14 pm
by PeFe
Aidan wrote:
Fri Nov 15, 2019 5:34 pm
Hazelwood closing had a huge amount to do with SA exporting more power. Without a carbon price, Hazelwood was more expensive than gas. When it closed, Victorian electricity wholesale prices went up and it became economically viable to export gas-powered electricity from SA.
South Australia does not export a lot of gas produced electricity (with the exception maybe of heatwaves)

I look at the NEM electricity graph ( showing totals per power source ie solar, coal etc) every day and the times South Australia is exporting a lot of electricity it is coming from wind and solar.....the graph never show large amounts of gas being produced.

Why would gas be a large export when it is so expensive? The recently opened Barkers Inlet power station is reportedly selling gas at $150 per mwh (I presume this is wholesale but it could be retail) Even the older gas plants would be selling their gas between $85-$100 wholesale..... Why buy at this price when wind and solar are going for around $50-$55?
Even excess coal would be coming in from NSW/Queensalnd way below gas prices.....and dont forget Tassie hydro and wind power, quite often exported to the mainland well below gas prices....
And NSW isn't exactly in the middle of the system - so far it only has direct links to two states, whereas Vic is connected to three.
Yes NSW has only 2 direct links, but is possible to onpass electricity via Victoria giving NSW access to Victorian, South Australian, Tasmanian and Queensland electricity. I have seen articles in the media stating that Tassie electricity has been accessed during NSW heatwaves.

And of course the power from Hornesdale 3 wind farm has to get to Canberra somehow...the ACT government has payed for the wind farm and are entitled to it's output.....via the interconnectors.

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:55 pm
by PeFe
Grid outage last Saturday night shows the value of large batteries.
From Renew Economy
South Australia’s renewables grid separates from NEM – lights don’t go out


A major network outage in Victoria on Saturday evening caused the grid in the state of South Australia to “island” or become separate from the rest of the main grid.

The important news is that nothing happened. There was no load shedding, no generator trips that anyone can identify, and the lights did not go out.

Like the last separation that occurred in August 25, 2018, when a lightning strike caused both South Australia and Queensland to separate from the grid, batteries appear to have played a key role in maintaining system security.

They reacted the quickest and initial data suggests that the thermal generators were slow to react. The presence of the batteries – and their absence in key markets such as Queensland – underlines how much more resilient the South Australia grid is, even with more than 50 per cent wind and solar.

According to AEMO, the outage on the main link from Victoria to South Australia, the Heywood interconnector, happened around 6.06pm (NEM time, which is AEST) The reason for the outage is not known and Ausnet, the owner and operator, is investigating. It took several hours for the link to be repaired and back on line.

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At the time South Australia was meeting more than half of its local demand from wind and solar, and exporting around 300MW of excess capacity to Victoria, meaning it had more than enough capacity to keep the lights on.

The state had been sourcing 93 per cent of its demand from wind and solar just half an hour earlier, but the solar component had wound back as the sun went down.

The separation meant that some generators had to dial down their output, but the immediate response came from those installations providing FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services) to ensure that the frequency kept in the normal bands, or was quickly brought back.

This appears to have happened, although AEMO have not provided further details. That will come out in a detailed study to be released “soon”. Network wonks can look at a highly technical and data-rich analysis posted on the Watt Clarity website.

What we do notice is that in the flurry of activity after the separation and “islanding”, prices spikes, two diesel generators came on briefly before the prices went negative again. FCAS prices also surged.

Full article : https://reneweconomy.com.au/south-austr ... out-14232/
And speculation continues over the Tesla big battery expansion
https://reneweconomy.com.au/expanded-te ... ces-82615/

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 2:36 pm
by PeFe
Tesla adds 50 mw capacity to its big batttery.......still the biggest!
And inertia services (enabling a greater penetration of renewables in the electricity network)
From Renew Ecomomy
Tesla big battery adds new capacity and services on march to 100pct renewables grid

French renewable energy and storage developer Neoen has confirmed that the so-called Tesla big battery at Hornsdale in South Australia will get a 50 per cent lift in capacity, and add new innovations and services that will help pave the way for the state to reach its goal of “net 100 per cent renewables”.

As reported exclusively in RenewEconomy on Monday, the battery – officially known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve – will be the first in Australia to provide digital – or “virtual” – inertia to the grid, an important network service previously only delivered only by synchronous machines (coal, gas and hydro).

It is estimated that the upgraded battery could provide 3,000 “megawatt seconds”, or 50 per cent of the state’s inertia requirements, meaning that gas generators can be used more sparingly when there is enough wind and solar to meet the state’s electricity demand. It’s another key marker on the road to eliminating fossil fuels from the grid.

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The addition of hundreds of new Tesla Powerpack batteries – at a cost of $71 million – will add 50MW/64.5MWh capacity to the existing facilities of 100MW/129MWh, lifting its capacity by 50 per cent and reinforcing its ranking as the biggest lithium-ion battery in the world.

The new addition is being supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, as reported by RenewEconomy on Monday, along with the Clean Energy Finance Corp, and the South Australia government.

ARENA is kicking in $8 million, the South Australia government is putting in $3 million a year for 5 years (on top of its $4 million a year for 10 year commitment to the original installation for emergency grid support), while it is the first battery to get debt financing support from the CEFC.

Neoen said the inertia benefits – dubbed by Tesla as its Virtual Machine Mode (VMM) – would facilitate the transition towards a high-penetration renewable grid. In South Australia, the state Liberal government has a target of “net 100 per cent renewables’ by around 2030.

Neoen noted that in its first full year of operation, the battery saved consumers more than $50 million, and these savings would continue to grow once the new addition was in place in 2020. It also earned a profit of $22 million in its first full year of operations.

“Alongside additional power system reliability and continued cost savings to consumers, the expansion will provide an Australian-first large-scale demonstration of the potential for battery storage to provide inertia to the network which is critical to grid stability and the future integration of renewable energy,” Neoen said in a statement.

“This will ensure South Australia can continue to harvest its world-class wind and solar resources and support the transition to net 100% renewable energy generation in the 2030s, and further drive down electricity prices for all consumers.”

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Full article : https://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-big-b ... rid-55121/


And the ABC story on the same subject matter
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-19/ ... r/11716784

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 4:14 pm
by SRW
I wonder if the $15 million from the SA government is new money or reallocated from the failed Port Augusta solar thermal?

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 4:23 pm
by PeFe
SRW wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 4:14 pm
I wonder if the $15 million from the SA government is new money or reallocated from the failed Port Augusta solar thermal?
I presume its new money......as far as I know the South Australian government invested no money in the solar thermal plan for Port Augusta.
The South Australian government were to be a "client" of the final product, not an investor.

The federal government did guarantee $100 million as seed money for the project, provided the rest of the finance was obtained by traditional methods and as this project failed to proceed the feds coughed up 0$.

The South Australian's government tender for electricity supply is still out there in the market place, and is not an "investment" style contract, but rather a conventional "supply" contract (with a few interesting caveats)

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:35 am
by [Shuz]
Great news, but I am seriously baffled by the completely contradictory policy responses to renewable energy and climate change by the State Liberals versus their Federal Liberal/National counterparts.

I'm not complaining, I support the transition to renewables and the investment. But its clear there is one rule for us, and a different rule for the other state Liberal parties? The silence is deafening. Surely this is causing internal friction between the States and Feds?

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:15 pm
by Aidan
Of course there's friction, but there's no rule that any state Liberal government has to put the interests of their party before those of the people they're elected to serve.


And the Federal Liberal position is unsustainable in every sense of the word. By the time of the next Federal election, the economic advantages of renewable energy will become clear and the Libs are likely to pay the political price.

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 6:15 pm
by Aidan
PeFe wrote:South Australia does not export a lot of gas produced electricity (with the exception maybe of heatwaves)

I look at the NEM electricity graph ( showing totals per power source ie solar, coal etc) every day and the times South Australia is exporting a lot of electricity it is coming from wind and solar.....the graph never show large amounts of gas being produced.
Our state's electricity exports are sometimes demand led and sometimes supply led. When they're supply led, it's because we're producing from renewables (plus from the small amount of gas that's kept running for system stability reasons) and as long as the price Victoria's willing to pay for electricity is above zero, it's worth selling electricity to Victoria. The amount of demand led exports has steadily risen as more wind and solar power infrastructure has been installed in SA. There'll be a small fall soon as the upgraded big battery reduces the need for gas fired generators to be kept on, but the trend will continue to rise.

Our state's demand led exports occur when the Vics are willing to pay top dollar for electricity. They were hardly ever willing to do so when Hazelwood was still open, but as soon as it closed that became a much more common situation, and accounted for the rise in our exports. Other states export there as well, of course, but Queensland and NSW are also generating from gas (as well as coal) at those times, and Basslink capacity is limited.

SA's demand led exports were never at much as the supply led exports in energy terms, though I expect they're much greater in dollar terms. As Victoria is getting more solar and wind power, their demand for electricity imports has fallen... but it will rise again when they close their next coal fired power station.

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:17 pm
by PeFe
South Australian produce markets (fruit and veg wholesalers) at Pooraka has just completed its rooftop solar grid (with battery and diesel backup)
No spoiled produce if there is a blackout!
From Off The Grid
“Reliable renewable” solar and battery microgrid powers S.A. Produce Markets

South Australia’s state Liberal government has marked the launch of another “reliable renewable” resource on its energy system, with the completion of a massive solar and battery microgrid at the South Australia Produce Market.

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The $10.5 million project, which was backed by a $2.5 million state grant, combines 2.5MW of solar PV, 4.2MWh of Tesla battery storage, and a 2.5MW on-site diesel generator.

The Autonomous Energy-led project, which included the installation of 6,412 solar panels and 25 Tesla powerpack batteries, was officially launched on Wednesday, two years construction commenced.

As well as making the market precinct energy self-sufficient, it is expected to deliver net savings of around $4.32 million over the next 10 years, compared to current retail energy offers in South Australia. In 2018, this was equated a saving of more than $500,000 a year for stall-holders.

Autonomous Energy said it worked with energy controls specialists AZZO to design and implement the microgrid’s integrated control system, which will monitor power quality, offer substation automation and spot market based control algorithms.

Matthew Linney, Autonomous Energy CEO, said the microgrid worked in both on and off-grid modes, making it able respond “intelligently and instantaneously” to various scenarios on the National Electricity Market.

“From an energy security perspective, the entire site can be automatically isolated from the grid and the system will supply the site’s entire electrical load with no interruptions,” he said.

“This technology will enable SA Produce Market growers and wholesalers to continue to provide affordable fresh produce to local consumers who purchase through independent retailers,” said the produce markets’ CEO Angelo Demasi.

“[The microgrid] is a win-win for both consumers and the environment, leading the way for other South Australian businesses,” he said.

Schneider Electric was also named at the launch as a key contributor to the project.

“The Marshall government is committed to a modern energy system which delivers more affordable, reliable and cleaner energy to all South Australian electricity consumers,” minister van Holst Pellekaan said at the microgrid launch.

https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/reliab ... e-markets/

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 3:16 am
by PeFe
The Tesla big battery expansions makes it into the New York Times.
Neoen to Expand World's Largest Lithium Ion Battery in Australia

(Reuters) - French power producer Neoen SA said on Tuesday it will expand its Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, the world's largest lithium ion battery, by 50% to help improve stability of the state's power grid.

The A$71 million ($48 million) project will enlarge the 100 megawatt battery, which is owned and operated by Neoen, and was built two years ago in conjunction with Tesla Inc.

The move comes as energy storage becomes increasingly essential to managing power supply in Australia as coal-fired plants are shut down and alternatives are needed to back up intermittent solar and wind power.

The Hornsdale project stemmed from a promise by Tesla's Elon Musk to help keep the lights on in South Australia following a string of blackouts by building a battery within 100 days or giving it to the state for free.

South Australian Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the expansion was designed to reduce spot price volatility and protect the grid from network disturbances.

The project will receive A$15 million from the South Australian government, up to A$50 million ($34 million) in cheap loans through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and A$8 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

"Large-scale batteries are playing an important role in providing short term, large-scale energy storage to help firm and balance the grid," ARENA CEO Darren Miller said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin)

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/11 ... neoen.html

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 1:47 am
by PeFe
Climate Council praises South Australia for it's energy transition.
From Renew Economy
South Australia Liberals celebrate nation-leading switch to wind, solar and storage

South Australia has been named Australia’s leader on the transition to renewables as the deepening divide between Australia’s states and territories on one hand, and the federal government on the other, features strongly again in the 2019 renewables score card from the Climate Council.

The State of Play: Renewable Energy Leaders and Losers report, published for the fifth year running on Monday, gives up all hope of the current federal government seeing the light on the shift away from fossil fuels, and instead calls on state and territory governments to go it alone.

The Morrison Coalition government is chided not just for failing to lead on clean energy, but for deliberately obstructing progress.

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“Without a consistent and stable policy environment the federal government is undermining the future pipeline of Australian projects,” said Climate Councillor and former ARENA chief Greg Bourne.

“It is time for all states and territories to create their own forums for coordination and move on without the federal government,” he said.

Of course, many states are, in effect, already doing just that – and leading this pack, rather ironically, is South Australia’s Liberal Marshall government.

The Climate Council names South Australia as overall winner in this year’s Report Card, calling the state a global leader in transitioning to a grid with a high share of wind and solar.

South Australia, like the ACT and Tasmania, already sources more than 50 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy resources – S.A., in fact, ranks third on this metric, at 51.2%, compared to 54.1% for the ACT and 94.6% for Tassie.

But it is the state’s leading role is “solving the physical supply and demand challenges” of a high renewables grid, that won it top honours this year.

“South Australia is building and integrating storage projects such as the world’s largest grid scale battery, synchronous condensers, and a new interconnector to New South Wales,” the Climate Council report says.

“It is also building a renewable hydrogen industry to turn surplus renewable power into stored hydrogen for transport fuels and to help balance the grid.”

South Australia energy minister, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, welcomed the recognition for his state, pointing to policies including the $200 million Home Battery Scheme, the $50 million Grid Scale Storage fund and $30 million Demand Management trials as crucial to its success.

Full article : https://reneweconomy.com.au/south-austr ... age-29469/
Also New Daily story on the same subject matter
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/nationa ... y-winners/

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 4:56 pm
by PeFe
Wind farm proposal overcomes legal objections.
From Renew Economy
Tilt Renewables 300MW wind farm gets all clear from S.A. Supreme Court


A Supreme Court bid to block the development of a 300MW wind farm in South Australia – due to its potential impact on the health of nearby residents – has been defeated, after a three-judge panel ruled to uphold a previous decision to allow the project to go ahead.

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The judgment, handed down by the South Australia Supreme Court on November 15, marks an important victory for Tilt Renewables’ long-stalled South Australia Palmer wind farm – and for wind energy in general, which is still subject to claims that “infrasound” produced by spinning turbines can make people (and other animals) sick.

But the ruling from Supreme Court Justices Kourakis, Kelly and Hinton, by upholding the March 2018 ruling of the Environment, Resources and Development Court (ERD), effectively finds these claims remain unsubstantiated.

Tilt’s 300MW Palmer wind farm, proposed for South Australia’s Mid Murray Council area, has travelled a rocky road since its conception in 2013, due largely to the objections of a number of local landholders, including high profile local AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan.

Their case, at first presented to the Environment, Resources and Development Court (ERD), was based around claims that residents living near to wind farms operating in other parts of Australia – Waterloo and Hallett in South Australia, and Cape Bridgewater in Victoria – had experienced health problems caused by wind turbines.

According to the Supreme Court documents, these alleged health problems included difficulty sleeping, nausea, cardiac arrhythmia, depression and irritability, vivid and distressing nightmares, ringing in the ears and ear pressure, and headaches.

When the ERD Court was not convinced by the claims and ruled in March 2018 to uphold the council’s approval, subject to additional conditions, just one of the original objectors, Stirling McDonald, appealed the decision in the Supreme Court.

But the Supreme Court ruled that McGregor – who lives in Melbourne but owns a house about 7km from the closest turbine proposed for Palmer wind farm – and his legal team had failed to prove that the ERD Court had erred in its judgement.

“The ERD Court found that, notwithstanding the affidavit evidence from residents of other wind farms concerning the adverse health effects they had experienced… there was no evidence that similar symptoms would be caused by the particular wind farm proposed by Tilt,” the Supreme Court said.

“There was no evidence that the other wind farms, their geographic and climatic location, and the relative location of the deponents’ homes to them, were closely comparable for the purposes of the pathogenesis of the conditions they described.

Full article : https://reneweconomy.com.au/tilt-renewa ... urt-58970/

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 3:00 pm
by PeFe
Local company 1414 Degrees has bought the former Solar Reserve site in Port Augusta.
This company has plans to build a large solar farm with huge storage potential using its own technology.
From Renew Economy
1414 picks up Port Augusta solar tower project, plans huge thermal storage plant

New life looks set to be breathed into South Australia’s abandoned Aurora Solar Tower Project, and from a rather unlikely source, with thermal energy storage hopeful 1414 Degrees announcing plans to acquire the Australian assets of the US solar tower developer, SolarReserve.

In an ASX statement published on Friday, 1414 Degrees said it was set to acquire SolarReserve Australia II Pty Ltd, owner of the Aurora Solar Energy Project near Port Augusta and two solar PV development sites in New South Wales.

But the asset to watch is SolarReserve’s Port Augusta project, which had state government development approval for a 150MW concentrated solar thermal plant (CST) and a 70MW solar PV plant – a project the struggling US-based company was forced to abandon in April, after it was unable to raise finance.

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1414 Degrees – a South Australian local – proposes to use the site to pilot its TESS-GRID technology, which it claims would deliver electricity firming services to similar scale as the solar power tower project (135MW of effective capacity and eight hours of storage).

The company said it would seek to vary or submit a new development application to provide up to 400MW of solar PV together with TESS-GRID technology with storage capacity that would be progressively scaled up to “several thousand MWh.”

This would be able to to supply “many hours of dispatchable electricity,” 1414 Degrees says, with spinning reserve from its turbines and a range of frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) to support grid stability.

It would also be able to buy and store renewable electricity generated elsewhere on the local network, strengthening firming services and earnings from market arbitrage.

“We will be using South Australian technology to create a large-scale, thermal energy storage plant near Port Augusta able to supply reliable power on demand to the national grid,” 1414 Degrees Executive Chairman Dr Kevin Moriarty said.

It’s a major move for the company which, since listing on the ASX in 2018, has signed up to a $3.2 million pilot project to install a GAS-TESS unit at an SA Water wastewater treatment plant in Glenelg, to store energy by burning gases produced in the treatment process and generate heat and electricity for the plant.

Its TESS technology stores electricity as thermal energy by heating and melting containers full of silicon, at a cost it has said could be up to 10 times cheaper than lithium batteries.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/1414-picks- ... ant-22559/
Also article from The Lead South Australia on the same subject matter with a few different details
http://theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/ind ... australia/

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 3:18 pm
by PeFe
Excellent article from Renew Economy regarding solar penetration into the South Australian electricity market and future implications.
The day rooftop solar met two thirds of South Australia’s total demand

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South Australia’s renewable energy transition continues to surprise energy experts, with the latest assessment produced by the Australian Energy Market Operator indicating that the push towards the government target of “net 100 per cent renewables” is accelerating rather than slowing down.

The latest South Australia Electricity Report published by AEMO on Thursday shows how far the state has come over the last 10 years: in 2018/19 the contribution of wind and solar combined to provide 52% of the state’s total generation.

The state, since closing its coal generators in 2016, has become a net exporter rather than an importer. Emissions have fallen to their lowest levels ever, the AEMO report points out.

And while the 2018/19 financial year did not paint a pretty picture on wholesale prices – thanks to some extraordinary events in the January heatwaves and the “contagion” from Victoria, prices in the last few months have been the lowest in the country.

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South Australia’s share of “variable” renewables – wind and solar – is not the highest in the world for a substantial grid (Denmark beats it), but it is an achievement for a relatively isolated grid at the end of a long stringy line.

And in some areas, it is world leading. On November 10, rooftop solar accounted for an astonishing 64 per cent of the state’s “operational demand”, when the combined output from solar panels on homes and small businesses totalled 832MW at 2pm.

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Rooftop solar has completely changed the dynamics of the local grid. It has shifted the time of minimum demand from the dead of night to the middle of the day, shoved the peak from the mid to late afternoon into the evening and after the sun has set, and created a clearly defined “duck curve” that is particularly visible in spring and winter.

“Rooftop PV contributed 50 MW more at the underlying peak in 2018-19 than had been forecast the previous year, delivering 433MW at the time of peak, and keeping the time of peak grid demand to 7:30pm Adelaide time,” the report notes.

That means a lot less gas generation is needed at the times, and what gas generation is required needs to be able to react quickly. That underlines the push for fast-start generators that will be rarely used, and will replace more conventional gas turbines as the level of battery storage increases, and other technology such as pumped hydro and synchronous condensers enter the system.

Solar PV contributed more than 10 per cent to local demand, but this could nearly treble over the coming decade depending on the ongoing uptake of rooftop solar.

And within four years, AMO expects the output of rooftop solar to reach 100 per cent of operational demand, given that the accelerating uptake of the technology at both small scale and at larger scale, where the installation on big industrial roofs and some ground mounted behind-the-metre installations is tracking at or even above its most optimistic forecasts.

To help balance this, South Australia is becoming a leader in the creation of “virtual power plants”, basically the aggregation – through smart controls and communication – of hundreds, or even thousands of rooftop solar and battery storage installations that can be deployed as though they were a single unit. That will also include electric vehicles.

These VPPs can be used just to inject power into the system, or provide system services such as frequency control. A trial conducted with Energy Locals and Tesla did just that earlier this month when it responded to a trip of the biggest coal unit in Queensland.

That particular VPP is likely to grow from 1,100 installations to 50,000 installation over the next decade, many of them on the roofs of low income and state housing, and will be supplemented by the state government’s own scheme to install 40,000 batteries, and other programs such as those run by Simply Energy and SA Power Networks.

The last financial year was notable for more significant events. The addition of the Lincoln Gap and Willogoleche wind farms took its installed capacity to more than 2.14GW. Its first three large scale solar farms entered production, another big battery entered the market, and more large scale wind and solar and storage projects joined the queue for construction.

AEMO’s pipeline of new wind and solar and storage projects is more than 10.5GW. Some private analysis puts this much higher but AEMO has a stricter criteria. If just one third of these proposals are built over the next 10 years, that will be enough to meet the state Liberal government’s “net 100 per cent” renewable target.

Any more, it will be able to fulfil its bigger aspiration of become a major exporter of renewable energy, either the electrons themselves via transmission links, or in the form of green hydrogen, or added value products such as “green metals.”

What does this mean for reliability? The outlook for the next 10 years, according to AEMO, is that there is no anticipated breach of the reliability standards – but it can never rule out what it calls a “tail risk event” – such as when a prolonged and viscous heat wave takes out multiple gas units, nor can it rule out contagion from neighbouring states such as Victoria.

Indeed, it suggests the South Australia could be affected should problems occur in Victoria and authorities decided to ‘spread” the hurt among energy users. That would make for some interesting political fallout.

But in South Australia, more batteries are entering the grid, the Tesla big battery at Hornsdale is getting a 50 per cent lift in capacity, and more fast start generation is being deployed, mostly to replace some of the current ageing and slow moving gas fleet.

The emergency “diesel” back ups are being leased to Nexif Energy and Infigen and will be converted to gas and deployed actively in the market. Infigen says this will enable it to build another 300MW of “firm” wind nd solar power in the state.

Just to finish with some interesting graphs.

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Figure 2 shows the estimated actuals and forecasts of annual rooftop PV generation for South Australia from 2010-11 to 2028-29. The current uptake is already tracking hell ahead of AEMO’s “central” scenario and a different category of larger scale rooftop PV (on industrial rooftops) is
currently tracking to meet or exceed the “Step change” forecast.

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This shows the emissions and emissions intensity from South Australia, which is clearly falling.

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This is a useful graph to dispel one of the big myths, namely that South Australia is more reliant on imports from other states after the closure of its coal generators.

Actually, it’s not. It imports less from Victoria and exports more.

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And finally, this is the average import/export flow on the main inter-connector to Victoria. From early morning to late at night, South Australia usually exports to its neighbour Victoria, the state heavily dependent on highly polluting brown coal generators.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/the-day-roo ... and-67549/

Re: News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:40 pm
by Goodsy

1414 picks up Port Augusta solar tower project, plans huge thermal storage plant


https://reneweconomy.com.au/1414-picks- ... ant-22559/