AEMO: NEM Not Yet Ready for 100% Renewables

The AEMO is taking the next steps to ensure Australia’s National Energy Market (NEM) can survive the shift to solar power and wind.

It’s been a record-setting year for renewables, but that’s brought its own challenges: lack of load-shifting to the middle of the day meant renewables have delivered below their potential on some occasions.

In its Engineering Roadmap FY2024 Priority Actions report announced this week, the market operator identified two such moments:

• On 28 October 2022, AEMO said in the report, the NEM hit 68.7% instantaneous penetration of renewables. At the time, however, renewables had the potential to deliver 77.5% of the NEM’s requirements; and
• On 20 November, instantaneous renewable penetration reached 65.5%, but the potential was 87.5%.

South Australia hit its personal best when operating “as a synchronous island” on 19 November 2022, when renewable penetration hit 91.5%.

The AEMO said if the NEM is to reach its potential in high renewables conditions, loads need to be shifted towards the middle of the day.

The other big consideration for the operator is system stability.

As the operator’s Manager Future Energy Systems Chris Davies told the ABC’s AM program, the aim is to live without the characteristics of the “big spinning masses of metal” that have underpinned power systems worldwide in the fossil fuel era.

Without the inertia of spinning metal, Davies said, a shock “can spread a long way through the power system”.

“We’ve got to have confidence when we turn off the last fossil fuel generator in any part of Australia, that the system is going to be resilient, that it’s going to hang together for all the sorts of shocks and surprises that happen on a power system on a day-to-day basis”.

The priority actions report, the AEMO said, seeks to provide transparency on which activities it is progressing in 2024, as well as providing an update on progress made in 2023.

Transitioning the NEM rapidly away from coal relies on 4 key pillars identified in the report:

1. Low-cost renewable energy, from abundant wind and solar.
2. Firming technology like batteries to smooth out peaks.
3. New system strength standards that facilitate new connections.
4. Power systems capable of running, at times, entirely on renewable energy.

And the best thing the consumer can do to help – is shift as many loads as possible to daytime, including simple timers, home automation, thermal mass and OCPP EV chargers.

You can provide feedback on the report by 31 July via  [email protected]

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/aemo-nem-not-ready/