<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/nem-review-urged-to-ditch-hub-and-spoke-thinking-and-focus-on-missed-opportunities-behind-the-meter/>
"Efforts to get enough “firming” capacity on Australia’s grid quickly enough to
support the target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030 are ignoring two huge
opportunities: commercial and industrial battery storage, and full
participation of demand-side resources.
In a range of submissions to the National Electricity Market (NEM) Review, some
of Australia’s leading energy innovators are calling on the four-member review
panel to fully dispense with ‘hub-and-spoke’ electricity market thinking and
flip the focus to behind the meter.
The NEM Review, led by Tim Nelson, is charged with proposing fundamental reform
of the national electricity market to make it fit-for-purpose for a renewables
dominated grid.
So far, most of the policies guiding the paradigm shift from baseload and
peaking to renewables and firming have focused on driving investment in big
wind and solar generation and – more recently – big batteries and other
large-scale and longer duration energy storage technologies.
But a growing chorus of voices says the focus needs to shift, again – from big
to small and from front-of-meter to behind the meter – and rapidly outdated
concepts of electricity supply and demand need to be tipped on their head.
“Previous NEM reviews have only given passing thought to the role of the demand
side in the design phase,” says a submission from solar retailer Flow Power.
“They have ignored the relative advantages of demand-side investments, while
the cost and implementation timeframes of large supply-side investments blow
out.
“We’ve learnt that the demand side should be the Panel’s first, not last,
consideration.”"
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
