Investment rush to support renewable power
Australia’s new energy age is coming, fast, with the nation on the cusp of an investment cycle in essential infrastructure the likes of which have not been seen for decades, according to AEMO.
Australian Energy Market Operator Chief Executive Officer Daniel Westerman told a
conference last month that “collaboration across industry, governments, market bodies
and the community is essential”.
“There will be headwinds, and unexpected events on this rapid and complex transition,
but I am confident that by working together, Australia can realise the opportunities of this
energy transition,” Mr Westerman said.
Addressing the AFR Energy and Climate Summit he said “urgent and sustained investment”
was needed “in generation, in storage, and in our networks”.
“Three years ago… I highlighted that Australia could see periods of time where enough renewable energy was available to meet 100 per cent of demand as early as 2025.
“At the time, the peak renewable contribution for a dispatch interval stood at 61 per cent
of generation in the NEM.
“That’s climbing steadily, year on year, with the latest record peak being 74 per cent this Spring.
“Western Australia’s grid has a record peak of 84 per cent renewable energy, and South Australia is regularly over 90 per cent.”
He said Australian had always had coal in its public grid, “but soon this coal will be gone”.
The energy system has been built on a paradigm from last century: Baseload coal power for steady consumption, and peaking generation to meet
short periods of high demand.
“But that formula is no longer fit for modern Australia.
“The principle of a security constrained economic dispatch market is that the lowest cost electricity is dispatched first.
“Today that lowest cost energy is renewable energy.
“Dependent on the weather, that renewable energy needs firming — the batteries, pumped hydro and flexible gas as the ultimate back-up — to support
it when the sun and the wind across Australia are not.
“Australia’s operational paradigm is no longer ‘baseload-and-peaking’, but increasingly it’s a paradigm of ‘renewables-and-firming’.”