Australia’s fleet of new big batteries is expected to play a critical role for reliability this summer as the Australian Energy Market Operator prepares a season that is likely to feature searing heatwaves and violent storms.
AEMO on Thursday released the results of its Summer Readiness Report, which had already been delivered to industry stakeholders at an on line briefing a fortnight ago, and to consumer groups on Wednesday.
The report says that Australia’s availability of synchronous thermal generation is largely the same as last summer, with the notable exception of Australia’s most coal dependent grid – Queensland – which will have 11 thermal units offline at various times for repairs and maintenance over this summer.
AEMO says Queensland faces its greatest risks of “loss of load” in December, while in NSW it is in both November and December, in January and February in Victoria, and through November to February in South Australia.
AEMO’s head of operations Michael Gatt says preparations have been made over the last few months to ensure that the maximum amount of transmission capacity, synchronous generators, battery storage and other resources are available over the summer period.
“We’re expecting similar conditions this summer to last year across Australia, with warmer than average days and nights likely for most of the country,” Gatt said in a statement.
“This includes the risk of heatwaves and increased likelihood of record maximum demand events. There is also the possibility for more minimum demand records as renewable output continues to grow alongside low grid demand on mild weekends and public holidays.”
AEMO says that battery energy storage capacity has grown by 1.3 gigawatts (GW) in the National Electricity Market since September last year, while 1.52 GW of grid-scale solar and 1.42 GW of wind have also been commissioned to full output.
In the separate Western Australian grid, an extra 300 MW of battery capacity is already available (the second stage of Neoen’s Collie battery, the biggest in the country), with a further 500 MW (from Synergy’s Collie battery) currently going through commissioning and expected to be ready before Christmas.
The above graph highlights the impact of additional battery storage over the last 12 months on the levels of generation and storage capacity. NSW is also boosted by the new Hunter Valley peaking gas generator, owned by Snowy Hydro, that will have one 330 MW available in late November and the second unit in mid December.
Victoria, according to a briefing document, is facing forced outages at Yallourn 2 and shorter outages at the other three units of the ageing coal generator due to be retired in 2028.
“AEMO continues to monitor risks as we progress through the summer months,” Gatt said in his statement.
“If challenges do arise, due to the extensive preparations, AEMO has multiple levers at its disposal across both the NEM and WEM, including, recalling planned transmission outages, directing all available capacity online and activating emergency reserves.”
If you would like to join more than 28,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, please click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
