<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/south-australia-has-the-most-wind-and-solar-and-no-baseload-so-why-is-it-the-only-state-not-fretting-about-a-vulnerable-grid/>
"South Australia has the highest wind and solar share – an average of around 72
per cent over the last 12 months – vastly more than other state in Australia,
and higher than any other gigawatt scale grid in the world.
Renewable energy critics, particularly those that don’t understand the way that
grids work, instantly assume that this means South Australia’s grid must be
weak and unreliable. But that is simply not true, and a new report from
Australian Energy Market Operator on “system strength” underlines why this is
so.
System strength is an important part of grid security, and – according to AEMO
– describes the ability of the power system to maintain and control the voltage
waveform at a given location, when the grid is running normally and
particularly when it has to deal with a major disturbance.
That disturbance could be a network fault, due to a fire, storm, falling trees
or some other issue, or a trip of a generator, an increasingly frequent event
given Australia’s ageing coal fleet and soaring summer temperatures.
If there is a shortfall in system strength, then the ability of the grid to
recover from the disturbance is impeded, increasing the risk of wider and
longer outages.
AEMO’s
2024 System Strength Report, published earlier this week, finds that
there are potential shortfalls in system strength in all of the states that
make up the country’s main grid, known as the National Electricity Market. The
one exception is South Australia.
“All regions except South Australia are expected to experience system strength
shortfalls over the next three years unless adequate investment or services are
provided,” the report says.
The reason is relatively simple. South Australia closed the last of its coal
fired generators in 2016, and despite having a number of gas generators these
are largely “peaking plants” that operate rarely, or “intermediate” that
operate part time. There is no baseload power left in the state.
That has not affected its energy reliability (despite what some pundits have
been claiming), and nor has it affected its energy security. AEMO and the local
network owners have already taken action to install four synchronous condensers
– spinning machines that do not burn fuel – and which have addressed the issue.
In time, battery storage may also be able to provide that service with their
advanced “grid forming” inverters."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
