By Phil Kreveld
Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) CEO Daniel Westerman was mentioned in the Australian Financial Review on October 21: “The head of the energy market operator has warned that householders’ stubborn reluctance to share power generated from their rooftop solar systems and batteries to benefit the grid will increase the cost of the transition to lower-carbon electricity for every one”.
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Poor AEMO, begging to be gobbled up by the mums and dads of Australia—because that is Westerman’s essential message, given that 90% plus of all electrical energy is slurped up by householders and many low-voltage commercial enterprises. AEMO, apart from government representation, accounting for 60%, has 90-odd members including generators, grids, distribution networks, etc., and retailers—but, alas, no mums and dads! As to the lions’ den, the danger is not posed by distribution consumers. Truth is, they’re a docile lot, reducing their energy bills by installing more solar and batteries.
There are 3.4 million residential rooftop solar PV installations, and 130,000 commercial rooftop installations under 100kW, nationally. The average size for residential systems is 8kW, and for commercial systems, 28kW. The aggregate residential capacity is 22GW, but because of network hosting limits, it is nearer 15GW, and for commercial installations less affected by export limits, probably close to the aggregate capacity. In total, small-scale solar PV actual generation capacity is around 25GW. The annual national electricity consumption is 230TWh, or an annual average demand of 26GW.
It is the voracious appetite of AEMO’s stake holders for more and more transmission projects, remote energy zones and batteries that “increase[s] the cost of the transition to lower-carbon electricity for every one”. So much so that in order to protect their interests, AEMO has the Emergency Backstop measure, based on IEEE2030.5 to switch off small-scale household and business solar inverters, ‘to protect grid stability’. In truth, it is the result of protecting the interests of AEMO’s stakeholders, i.e., always having net demand for electricity.
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Given the enormous low-voltage solar generation capacity in distribution grids, AEMO would be well advised to rewrite its Integrated System Plan, recognising the one ‘passive lion’, the household and small business sector. The new plan would include battery capacity in terminal stations, as well as other generation capacity, e.g., bio-fuelled turbines. And, it might sit down with its friends at the Australian Energy Market Commission, and rewrite the rulebook, recognising distribution networks as—who would have thought—generators of electrical energy!
