1. South Australia to get 30MW battery to create renewables-based mini grid

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency says it is providing $12 million towards the $30 million cost of a major battery storage installation to be located on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia and create a renewables-based mini-grid with the nearby Wattle Point wind farm.

The battery will pair with the local 90MW Wattle Point wind farm and local rooftop solar PV to form local micro-grid to ensure grid security and so keep the lights on in case the network failures elsewhere in the state.

In addition:

The 30MW/8MWh large scale battery will deliver both network services and market services, and is the result of a lengthy study begun in 2014 called ESCRI (Energy Storage for Commercial Renewable Integration) by local grid operator ElectraNet, Worley Parsons and AGL.

It is designed principally to provide fast frequency response and help balance the local network, but it will also help reduce congestion on the Heywood interconnector with Victoria, because its placement means more power can be transported over the line.

The battery is due to be in operation by February, 2018, adding to the Tesla big battery which is due to be in place by December 1, along with up to 100MW of demand response, and emergency back-up generators.

2. Tesla to supply the biggest battery in the world

This one has been carried forward a couple of times in CC and dates from early July.

The purpose of the battery is to provide stability for renewable power being fed into the grid. Danny Price explained to RN Drive that the purpose was not to provide 129 MWh of backup electricity, it was to make variable wind power synchronous and indistinguishable from ‘baseload’ power from fossil sources.

Its important characteristic is that it is dispatchable on a second by second basis, which pumped hydro is not.

Josh Frydenberg in commenting on the news at the time got into a pissing with his Snowy pumped hydro, showing either ignorance or playing politics as usual.

There’s more at RenewEconomy.

3. Victoria plans 650MW renewable auction, plus two new solar farms

Victoria’s state Labor government has unveiled the first of its large scale renewable energy auctions – for 650MW of wind and solar capacity – in the first major move towards its renewed commitment to reaching 40 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

Two new solar farms will be built to supply the Melbourne tram network with renewable energy – the 100MW Bannerton Solar Park near Robinvale in the Sunraysia district, and the 38MW Numurkah Solar Farm near Shepparton.

Ben Potter at the AFR reports the usual war of words:

Victorian Energy Minister Lily d’Ambrosio told reporters the Turnbull government was being held to ransom by “recalcitrant backbenchers who live on another planet”. Mr Andrews said “it’s up to states like Victoria to fill that void”.

Josh Frydenberg took the bait, saying: “National problems require national solutions”, blah blah, and Victoria was setting itself up for a SA type outcome.

Daniel Andrews said:

modelling by EY showed a legislated Victorian Renewable Energy Target – 25 per cent by 2020 and 40 per cent by 2025 – would reduce household bills by about $30 a year, medium business bills by about $2500 a year and large companies’ bills by about $140,000 a year, while sharply reducing carbon emissions.

4. Macquarie bank goes green in the UK

Macquarie Group has acquired Green Investment Bank in the United Kingdom for $3.7 billion to push into renewable energy markets in Europe then more broadly around the world.

Seems their reputation is not altogether clean, but they’ve convinced the British authorities that their intentions are good.

5. Woodside Petroleum to install large battery on gas platform

The 1 megawatt-hour storage system to be set up early next year on the North West Shelf venture’s Goodwyn platform off the Western Australian coast will eliminate the need for a spare generator to be constantly kept spinning in reserve to avoid the risk of a costly interruption of gas production.

There are four gas turbine generators in use on the platform. One of the four is kept running as a spinning reserve in case one of the other generators trips. A battery which can come to life instantly is a logical alternative.

6. SA backup power stations

The SA Government has bought nine new General Electric aero-derivative turbines to provide backup power during the coming summer. For the first two years diesel will be used as a fuel while a gas-fired facility is built. This is the 250 MW facility which will only be turned on when required by the market operator to back up normal generation.

Because the visionaries in Canberra closed down the car manufacturing industry, the empty Holden building at Elizabeth will be available, along with the Adelaide desalination plant site in Lonsdale. The back-up generation would be “deployed in just weeks”.

All of this no thanks to the visionaries in Canberra.

In the event SA is getting 276 MW for less than they had budgetted.

7. In the foreseeable future, SA will need no grid power at times

The above link makes reference to the latest Electricity Forecasting Insights published by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO):

AEMO found South Australia’s heavy uptake of solar panels means in a decade’s time on some days the state will have surplus power without having to switch on a single power station.

“Minimum demand in South Australia is expected to be negative by 2027-28, as rooftop PV generation is expected to exceed customer demand in some hours,” the report stated.

“South Australia could store this excess generation or export it to the rest of the NEM [National Electricity Market] via the interconnectors, provided they were in service.

So at times of minimum demand, not even SA’s wind farms will be needed by the state. Of course this state of affairs is greatly assisted by the visionaries in Canberra getting rid of the car industry, thus reducing demand.