Western Australia sets new renewables record of 81% – in world’s biggest isolated grid

Western Australia has posted a new record for instantaneous renewable energy share, reaching a new peak of 81 per cent – a level regarded as quite remarkable in what is the world’s biggest isolated grid.

The new peak was reached last Saturday afternoon around 12.30 local time, and easily beat the previous benchmark of 79 per cent set in September last year.

According to the Australian Energy Market Operator, most of the renewables came from rooftop solar (61 per cent) installed on the homes and businesses within the state’s main grid, known as the South West Interconnected System

“Renewables supplied nearly 40 per cent of total electricity generated in WA’s WEM last week, also setting a new instantaneous renewables record of 81% on Saturday, up 1.3% from the previous record,” AEMO noted in a tweet on Thursday, after resolving some data issues earlier in the week that indicated an even higher share.

“At the time, rooftop PV was estimated to contribute over 61% of underlying demand,” it said.

This is considered remarkable because WA’s main grid is not connected to any other network, and also has no big battery storage facilities, nor any pumped hydro facilities.

AEMO, in conjunction with the state government, has been introducing a new system known as “project symphony” which seeks to “orchestrate” newly installed rooftop solar panels and demand response to give it the levers to respond to any grid disturbances at such high levels of rooftop solar.

The state government has set a target date of 2028 to close the last of the state’ owned coal generators in the town of Collie, leaving just one privately owned coal generator in the grid, if it can manage to source coal supplies.

The first big battery on the state’s main grid, at Kwinana, should be in operation in 2024.