13 April 2021
Australia must rapidly decarbonisation while delivering affordable, reliable power. Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) will be important in doing this.
A REZ is a cluster of generators sharing transmission infrastructure to provide a lower-cost and faster way of delivering new, renewable generation into the system.
Despite their obvious benefits, REZs haven’t yet been delivered.
A key reason is rules and regulations – collectively, a relic of last century’s energy grid – that don’t support building transmission infrastructure ahead of new generation and don’t require generators to cover some of the cost of the regulated transmission infrastructure they need.
Regulatory Action in Australia Casts Shadow Over Major Transmission Projects
Industry Segment: Power | Word Count: 193 Words
The future of Transgrid and Electranet s massive Project Energy Connect transmission project is in doubt after the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) formally rejected a request from network companies to allow for increased early revenues from key network upgrades.
Transgrid believes the AEMC decision not only affects its project, but that it will impact other projects in the National Electricity Market that are not financeable under the current rules, because the projects would be rated sub-investment grade and not meet the Australian Energy Regulator s own rate-of-return requirements.
Solar enthusiasts are jumping on the bandwagon to promote the renewable energy (RE) source, harping that it is freely available and more cost-effective.
But is this true? And is too much solar a good thing? Let’s explore this further.
Solar is available only during the day, thus you still need to cater for energy during the night. This will normally be provided by other conventional plants (i.e coal, gas and hydro). This means that conventional plants are still needed even though solar is introduced into the system.
Alternatively, battery can also be used to store some of the solar energy for the night. However, this comes as an additional cost.
Battery technology is still new and expensive with a current price tag of RM5000/kW, compared with RM3000/kW for the typical cost of a gas plant. Not only are batteries for the power system costly, they can only be used for a limited time, depending on their type and design.
KUALA LUMPUR: Solar enthusiasts are jumping on the bandwagon to promote the renewable energy (RE) source, harping that it is freely available and more.