Australia facing energy reliability challenges says report

Power lines in Victoria, Australia [credit: Wikipedia]

The long-term consequences of exchanging on-demand for unpredictable power generation are not hard to figure out. But political leaders in some countries prefer to ignore such issues, in favour of a questionable ideology that guarantees problems in their increasingly unreliable electricity systems.

A report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is a stark reminder of the reliability challenges facing the country’s National Electricity Market (NEM), says PEI.

The Andrews Labour government has been accused of failing to properly replace ageing infrastructure which has created unnecessary risk to the affordability and reliability of the NEM.

This challenge is starkest in Victoria, with AEMO warning the state is not expected to meet the NEM’s reliability standard this summer, putting Victorian households and businesses at an unacceptable risk of blackouts.

Without the procurement of up to 560 MW of emergency reserves by AEMO, up to 1.3 million Victorian households could face being without power for up to four hours in the upcoming summer months.

According to the Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) report report: “Most of the announced new generation projects are variable renewable energy generators, which often do not generate at full capacity during peak demand times or may be positioned in a congested part of the network. As a result, while providing significant additional energy during many hours of the year, these projects are forecast to only make a limited contribution to meeting demand during peak hours.”

With the closure of the coal-fired Liddell Power Station due in April 2023, AEMO warns of the risk to consumers as more generation and transmission investment is needed to keep the lights on in the long term.

Full article here.