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| Fri, 1st May 2020 13:15:00 |
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Australian grid could derive 75% of electricity from renewables by 2025 |
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) claims that the country already has the technical ability to safely operate a system in which three-quarters of the electricity comes from wind and solar. However, it needs to get the regulations right in order to do so.
Australia's main electricity grid could safely derive up to 75% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by as soon as 2025, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said in a new study this week. However, this will only be possible if market conditions and the regulatory environment are modified.
On Thursday, AEMO released its much-anticipated Renewable Integration Study (RIS), which is the first stage of a multi-year plan to ensure system security in a future National Electricity Market (NEM) characterized by a high share of renewable resources. The report take projections from AEMO's 20-year grid transition blueprint, the Integrated System Plan, and confirms that the grid is already capable of handling a very high penetration of intermittent renewables.
"Australia has the technical capability to operate a power system where three-quarters of our energy at times comes from renewable energy resources," said Audrey Zibelman, AEMO's managing director and CEO. "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 share of renewable energy in the NEM has stood at roughly 25% in recent months; for brief periods, it has occasionally exceeded 50%. In total, the NEM has 17 GW of wind and solar generation capacity, according to AEMO data, with several regions hosting the world's highest levels of wind and solar, including one of the highest levels of residential PV capacity.
By 2025, AEMO's Draft 2020 ISP forecasts in its 'central' scenario that this could increase to 27 GW of wind and solar, including both utility-scale and distributed-generation solar PV. But as the NEM continues its transformation, the latest study makes clear that "today's operating approaches and market frameworks are becoming less effective," Zibelman claimed.
"Given the pace and complexity of change in the NEM, 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 added. "This is going to be particularly important in the areas of technical standards and frameworks for sourcing essential system services."
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