AEMO delivers Do-nothing coal “rebuke”

Via the AFR

The Australian Energy Market Operator has again highlighted the challenges to the power system from increasing shares of variable wind power in its final report on South Australia’s September 28 blackout.

But it says the risks can be managed by harnessing the grid-stabilisation potential of wind farms and paying customers to reduce their demand, so-called “demand responses”.

The report is the first published under AEMO’s new chief executive Audrey Zibelman – a strong advocate for renewable energy and policy support for the transformation of the energy system away from fossil fuels – and reads like a rebuke to the Turnbull government’s pro-coal power stance.

Demand response, which describes measures such as financial incentives to induce energy users to cut their demand during supply shortfalls to help prevent blackouts, is among the measures championed by Ms Zibelman in her previous role as chair of the New York Public Service Commission, the paramount energy regulator in the state of New York.

“Instead, additional means of procuring these services must be considered, from non-synchronous generators (where it is technically feasible), or from network or non-network services (such as demand response and synchronous condensers).”