Grid demand hits record low as rooftop PV takes bigger bite out of coal power’s lunch

Grid demand in Queensland, Australia’s most coal dependent state, hit a record low on Sunday as the growth of rooftop solar PV took a bigger bite out of the traditional midday lunch of the state’s coal generators.

According to the Australian Energy Market Operator, Queensland’s minimum demand hit a record low of 3,469MW at 1pm on Sunday. This beat the previous record of 3,488MW set in winter on August 20, 2022, and AEMO says it marks the first minimum demand record in spring 2022.

Some of the generation was being soaked up by exports to NSW, the state’s pumped hydro generators, and the state’s first big battery at Wandoan South which was charging up at a rate of 50MW at that point.

Coal was reduced to providing 50 per cent of the state’s power at the time.

Queensland has a 50 per cent renewable energy target for 2030, and although it has made little progress to date (the average share of renewables in the last 12 months is 20 per cent), there is speculation that it may unveil an even higher target in its new energy plan, thanks to some planned huge multi-gigawatt scale projects from the private sector.

See: Australia’s most coal dependent state may be about to make big green leap

Across the National Electricity Market, which includes all states except for Western Australia, the share of renewables peaked at above 60 per cent (60.3 per cent) at 11.15am on Sunday which was not far off the record for the country’s main grid.

But things were also sunny in Western Australia, where the share of distributed solar PV, mostly on rooftops, hit what appears to be a record of 72 per cent on Sunday, a day after setting an earlier peak of 71 per cent on Saturday. The previous record was 69 per cent almost exactly a year ago.

It also set new records for minimum demand, on both Saturday and Sunday.

Rooftop solar reaches 72 per cent of demand in world’s biggest isolated grid