AEMO is the grid operator in Australia. There’s lots of sunshine in the country and lots of subsidies for installing solar panels on your roof. I’m not sure why this problem wasn’t planned for years ago.
The body responsible for keeping the lights on in Australia’s biggest electricity grids wants emergency powers to switch off or throttle rooftop solar in every state to help cope with the daily flood of output from millions of systems…AEMO said the ever growing output from solar was posing an increasing threat to the safety and security of the grid because it was pushing out all other forms of generation that were needed to help keep the system stable…
And it warned that unless it had the power to reduce — or curtail — the amount of rooftop solar times, more drastic and damaging measures would need to be taken. These could include increasing the voltage levels in parts of the poles-and-wires network to “deliberately” trip or curtail small-scale solar in some areas…
"(It may) therefore be operating outside of the risk tolerances specified in the National Electricity Rules, where the loss of a single transmission or generation element may lead to reliance on emergency control schemes to prevent system collapse.
Australia has a Free Trade Agreement with China which allows them to buy solar panels and batteries much cheaper. I would not be surprised if people go pseudo off the grid. With batteries and the Grid as a back up. So the utilities can shut them down when they need to.
The French electricity giant said on Wednesday that it would close the 75 megawatt (MW) Port Lincoln plant and the 63MW Snuggery plant by July this year, ahead of full decommissioning by 2028.
The two power plants, used in times of peak demand and low supply, were supposed to last until 2030, but the pace of the transition to renewables – and tweaks to key energy market policies – have meant the generators are no longer financially viable to keep running.
And this week we read that there is a predicted shortfall of 200 megawatts during the upcoming hot weather, so…
In July, French company Engie turned off its Port Lincoln and Snuggery peaking generators, ahead of its full closure in 2028.
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis has sought rule changes that would give the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) the power to compel companies to bring decommissioned generators back online to support the grid supply during periods of high demand.
