Australian Energy Market Operator says flexible connection process key to filling coal void

Australia’s energy operator says it needs grid scale to increase seven-fold by 2030 to ensure stability, given coal power stations are set to disappear.

Industry wants better standards on connecting grid forming inverters to the broader power system. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The Australian Energy Market Operator has warned a transmission grid connection must be practical and flexible to accommodate the increasing demand for renewable energy integration.

The operator expects energy demand to double in the next 20 years, and at the same time coal generation to be fully withdrawn.

According to its draft Integrated System Plan due to be released in the next three weeks, the AEMO has outlined that it needs grid scale wind and solar to increase sevenfold from 19 to 126 gigawatts by 2030 and gas generation to increase from 11 to 16 gigawatts to provide underpinning support and stability in the grid.

AEMO group manager onboarding and connections Margarida Pimentel said a variety of skill sets and partners are needed to work together to ensure all steps from planning approvals to the connection process were implemented in a timely manner.

“Industry has told us that it wants practical and flexible processes that are fit for purpose for your project,” she said at the Clean Energy Council’s Australian Large-Scale Solar & Storage Summit.

“It wants transparent engineering based, pragmatic and predictable decision-making.”

The Albanese government has set an ambitious target of having renewable energy generate more than 80 per cent of the country’s energy by 2030, which it said will allow the country to meet legislated targets to reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent.

Ms Pimentel said that AEMO was looking at what levers it could pull to ensure that more renewable projects were able to connect to the grid, noting that there were a number of factors outside its control such as supply chain issues, contractual negotiations, construction delays, needs to need to refinance due to changing costs.

“There are aspects of the process that we can positively influence, such as considerations in project design, understanding rules, obligations, and helping to develop a common activity plan that could be used in co-ordinating project activities.”

Ms Pimentel said that the AEMO had pulled together a reform program focused on pulling together feedback industry to develop the framework for what an end-to-end connection process would be like by starting to work with the Commonwealth and at this stage NSW and Queensland, noting that Victoria was further behind its renewables transition.

“We’re working with the government — Commonwealth, NSW and Queensland to develop policy and regulations to bring our practices and decision-making into the 21st century,” she said.

“I will say that’s still a work in progress. It’s not finished. We want it to cater for emerging technologies and how businesses operate today and into the future.

“We trialled all different streamlining initiatives with the government on real connection projects. We wanted to embed structure, transparency and accountability into how we deliver connections, reshape how we assess connections, and also actively measure and reporting industry on how we're going.”

Enel Green Power senior grid engineer Carolina Mayol told delegates that industry was crying out for all stakeholders to co-ordinate to allow proponents such as OEMs the most cost-effective solution in each connection.

Currently, the National Electricity Rules does not differentiate between grid forming and grid following inverters,” she said.

“So grid forming inverters have to comply with the exact same standards that a grid following inverter has to comply with.”

“We need to make it easier for grid forming inverters to be integrated into our power systems to enable decarbonisation of the grid,” she said.

Ms Pimentel made clear to industry that the AEMO wanted to work with industry; it was looking into such reform with the first phase of its access standards review.

“We have 44 changes that we’re proposing, some of them trying to enable grid forming inverters and recognising how they might be different or behave differently, but also wanting to recognise the value that they bring to the power system,” she said.

Originally published as Australian Energy Market Operator says flexible connection process key to filling coal void