News & Discussion: Electricity Infrastructure

[bits]

They are actually on the back of the old refinery site.

[PD2/20]

They are actually on the back of the old refinery site.

See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-17/ ... l/12157932 .

[PeFe]

South Australia met all its electricity demand from solar power for a while on Sunday, an Australian first.

From Renew Economy

Solar meets 100 per cent of South Australia demand for first time

The combination of rooftop and utility scale solar met 100 per cent of demand in South Australia for the first time on Sunday, reaching a milestone that will surely be repeated many times over – and for longer periods – in the future.

The milestone was reached at 12.05pm grid time (Australian eastern standard time), with rooftop solar providing 992MW, or 76.3 per cent of state demand, and utility scale solar providing a further 315MW – meaning all three of the state’s big solar farms, Bungala 1m Bungala 2 and Tailem Bend were operating at full capacity.



The new record came just weeks after solar set a previous milestone of 94 per cent of state demand and rooftop solar output reached 900MW for the first time. The combination of sunny weather, mild temperatures and relatively low weekend demand is sure to see more records fall.

The state’s generators were producing more than they needed and exporting most of the surplus to Victoria with some going into the state’s big batteries.

South Australia is currently required to run a minimum amount of gas-fired generation to provide grid services such as inertia and system strength, but the need for this will be reduced when four new synchronous condensers are switched on over the next 12 month, and as battery storage begins to provide “synthetic” inertia services.

The expanded Hornsdale big battery is trialling those inertia services, and has the capacity to meet half the state’s inertia requirements. The construction of a new link to NSW will also further reduce the need for local gas fired generators, and will accelerate the shift towards the state Liberal government’s target of net 100 per cent renewables (averaged over a year).

The continued surged in rooftop solar installations means that South Australia is also likely to reach a new milestone of having rooftop solar along meet 100 per cent of its demand needs.

This is causing concern to the Australian Energy Market Operator, and has driven the introductions of tighter standards and new protocols for new installations that will allow their solar systems to be shut down in what AEMO says will be the rare occasions this is needed to ensure grid security.

South Australia is also leading the nation in the rollout of battery storage, and the creation of “virtual power plants”, where some of the battery capacity installed in households can be reserved and harnessed for grid services, including frequency control.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-meets ... ime-78279/

[PeFe]

Ikea intend installing solar panels on the rooves of their Australian stores. Also they will add small batteries for storage.
First up is the Adelaide store.

From One Step Off The Grid

Ikea Adelaide’s solar and battery microgrid is first big step to 100% onsite solar power



Swedish furniture giant and sometimes rooftop PV retailer Ikea is about to begin work on an industry-leading, grid-connected commercial solar and battery microgrid based on its Adelaide store.

The project, flagged by Ikea Australia in June at the launch of its Solstråle residential solar offering, is being developed in conjunction with Planet Ark Power, the South Australian government, SA Power Networks and Epic Energy.

The $6.6 million first stage of the microgrid, which will be owned and operated by Epic Energy, will install 1.2MW of solar on the rooftop of Ikea Adelaide and a 3MW/3.4MWh OilPower CATL lithium-ion battery storage system, also installed on-site in three 40 foot containers.

The solar and storage system will be managed through a combination of Schneider Electrics’ smart energy management software and, on the grid-connected side, Planet Ark Power’s award-winning eleXsys dynamic voltage control platform, the hardware for which will be housed in an additional 20 foot container.

For Ikea, the 3024 Q-Cell PV panels and battery storage will – at the end of stage one mid-way through next year – provide more than 70 per cent of the store’s electricity needs, which will be delivered via a power purchase agreement with Epic Energy.

But the project also gives the furniture giant some serious green cred – on top of having already met its company-wide target to produce and procure more renewable energy than it consumes by this year, 2020.

“Collaborations like this have always been a cornerstone of the Ikea way – this is more important now than ever in order to tackle the climate crisis,” said the global head of climate and energy for Ingka Group, Karol Gobczyński.

“Change will only come if we work together. …Ikea Australia is taking action together with our customers, partners and governments to do our part in creating society powered by 100% renewable energy.”

“Ikea Australia is excited to be working with such inspirational partners to help shift the dial on clean energy production in Australia,” added Jan Gardberg, Ikea Australia’s CEO and chief sustainability officer, in comments on Wednesday.

“Our ambition is to be the first mover and inspire other Ikea stores to install larger solar installations, batteries and digital solutions. Planet Ark Power’s eleXsys energy management system will support the balancing of the electricity grid not just on stores in Australia, but across the Ikea network around the world.”

For Brisbane-based Planet Ark Power, participation in the Adelaide microgrid and the ongoing partnership with Ikea marks the culmination of seven years of hard work developing a world-leading grid integration solution that manages two-way flows of energy by making smarter use of existing electricity infrastructure.

And the technology is attracting a good deal of interest beyond Australia. In April of last year, eleXsys won the 2019 Start-Up Energy Transition (SET) Awards supported by the World Energy Council in Berlin.

“The inclusion of Planet Ark Power’s unique eleXsys energy management system is the critical link that makes the Ikea, grid-connected microgrid project so innovative and world leading,” said the company’s COO, Jonathan Ruddick, on Wednesday.

“Our eleXsys technology solution functions to ensure certainty of revenue streams from the export of surplus solar energy and grid stability services into the grid without the risk of curtailment by electricity network operators,” he said.

“We are particularly proud to contribute to the IKEA journey to achieve 100% renewable energy at their Adelaide site while also helping SA Power Networks provide more secure, clean energy to the broader South Australian community.”

Ruddick, in an interview with One Step Off The Grid this week, said Planet Ark Power and its dynamic solar management solution, was formed by former senior electrical engineers on Queensland’s government-owned networks, who had watched as voltage instability issues started to arise from the first flush of residential solar installs in the Sunshine State.

“Our tech solution solves this challenge of zero export restrictions being applied,” Ruddick said. “What we’re doing is bringing those large remote solar and wind farms into the urban environment where the energy is actually needed, avoiding transmission costs, and giving confidence that voltage management is being provided dynamically.

“Once you solve those zero export issues, the investment becomes de-risked… and that’s where Epic Energy comes into the fold, and enters a PPA (power purchase agreement) with Ikea based on de-risked or predictable investment returns.

“This results in a new investment class which we call Microgrids as a Service (MAS). These can be used by industrial zones to install optimised rooftop solar and offer the sort of predictable returns on investment that are currently bedeviling the big solar farms.”

In the case of the Ikea MAS, Planet Ark Power will be offering all of the bells and whistles of its energy management system, including dynamic voltage management, generation capacity enhancement, and load and voltage balancing.

EleXsys will also be used to optimise the microgrid’s operation by operating as a fast response balance between generation and load, and will use the battery to balance load and generation at local level to optimise network utilisation.

The system will also offer network monitoring and visibility, Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS), and independent frequency and harmonics management.

The latter services will likely come into play as part of stage two of the project, which will add a solar shaded car-parking facility and boost the amount of surplus energy to be sold into the grid while continuing to power the site.

This stage will generate a further 30% the store’s energy needs, resulting in Ikea Adelaide becoming 100% powered by onsite renewable generation.

Following this, the aim is for Ikea and its partners to investigate the viability of hydrogen energy being generated on site, and of Ikea becoming an energy provider, able to generate and and sell renewable energy to the grid.

For the near-term, however, the focus is on taking Ikea Adelaide to 70 per cent renewable in a way that seamlessly brings benefits to the broader grid, rather than headaches.

“Epic Energy believes this project – and decentralised generation more broadly – sets the foundation for a sustainable new energy model for Australia, that will play an important role in Australia’s energy mix over the coming years,” says Epic Energy CEO Clive D’ Cruz.

“Our involvement demonstrates the attractiveness of investing in projects that can safely, securely and reliably export surplus clean energy into low voltage urban networks.”

And for the South Australian government, whose Renewable Technology Fund contributed $1.95 million in funding to the project, the microgrid offers another piece of the puzzle for the state’s world-leading shift to a majority renewables-powered grid.

“Solar power and battery with Schneider’s microgrid management systems and Planet Ark Power’s voltage management system… [will] together allow Ikea to help SA Power Networks to manage the local network to improve the quality of power to nearby homes and businesses,” state energy minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said on Wednesday.

“The project will let Ikea significantly reduce its carbon footprint and make it easier for other companies to adopt low carbon technologies … and is a significant project for the state.”

https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/ikea-a ... lar-power/

[PeFe]

The South Australian government wants to establish multiple hydrogen production hubs (and expand the amount of renewable energy to power them) This should take care of any "low demand Sundays"

From Renew Economy

South Australia names hydrogen hubs to foster “epic” growth in wind and solar




The South Australia Liberal government has named three hydrogen hubs that it expects will result in an “epic” growth in wind and solar capacity in the state, and enable it to become a major energy exporter to the rest of the country and the world.

While the federal Coalition government complains that there is “too much wind and solar” in the grid, and some Coalition members describe solar as a “hoax on the gullible”, South Australia energy minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan on Tuesday launched the Liberal government’s hydrogen prospectus which it says could expand the state’s wind and solar capacity by up to six fold.

“Hydrogen is shaping up as a game-changer in the fight against climate change and our aim is to get the cost down so that it’s a commercially attractive option for heavy transport, power generation and use by industry,” said the Minister.

“This prospectus reveals that South Australia can become a national and international exporter of clean power, while achieving the goal of net-100% renewable energy.”

South Australia is already a world leader in the deployment of wind and solar, which produced more than 57 per cent of state demand over the last 12 months, and on many occasions more than 100 per cent. Just over a week ago, its solar resources produced more than 100 per cent of state demand in one half hour period, a world first.

The state government has a target of reaching “net 100 per cent” renewables before 2030, and become a net exporter of wind and solar. This will likely accelerate that timeline.

The state – which already has the country’s biggest electrolyser to date at the Tonsley Park in Adelaide – has named three hydrogen hubs to be created at Port Bonython, Port Adelaide and Cape Hardy/Port Spencer.

Van Holst Pellekaan says just one of the hydrogen hubs could at least double the current installed capacity of solar and wind in South Australia, which is just over 2GW of large scale wind and solar and over 3GW if you include rooftop solar.



The document says that the hub at Port Bonython in the Upper Spencer Gulf could export industrial-scale green hydrogen around the huge wind and solar installations already built or planned for the region around Whyalla and Port Augusta.

Both Port Bonython and Port Spencer could support green electrolysers of up to 2.5GW, which in turn would support wind and solar additions of between 6GW and 6.5GW.

The Port Adelaide facility is described as “localised” green energy, supporting up to around 800MW of contracted wind and solar, while Port Bonython is also earmarked for an additional “blue-green” hydrogen hub that would include some of the state’s gas resources.

“This is a key step in our plan to make South Australia a consumer and exporter of clean hydrogen,” the minister said in a statement.

“This new Prospectus and modelling tool cements our credentials as a world-class place to do business and leading renewable hydrogen producer and supplier to the world.”

The hydrogen prospectus says that hydrogen will allow the world to rethink ways to generate and store energy, power transport fleets and heat homes.

“There is no doubt that hydrogen production could be a transformative technology,” it says. “It will challenge industries to rethink their current processing, trigger close examinations of our gas pipelines and ports, and inspire a different mindset on how we fuel our transport sector.”

https://reneweconomy.com.au/south-austr ... lar-63661/

[1NEEDS2POST]

Who will use the hydrogen? It would be a good idea to set up an ammonia plant nearby to take advantage of the cheap hydrogen. At the moment, ammonia for fertilisers and explosives is the largest user of hydrogen.

[SBD]

Who will use the hydrogen? It would be a good idea to set up an ammonia plant nearby to take advantage of the cheap hydrogen. At the moment, ammonia for fertilisers and explosives is the largest user of hydrogen.

Perhaps that is a plan for Port Spencer? That seems like an odd place to put a large consumer on the electricity grid and doesn't have an existing gas pipe that I know of either.

I would have thought that one of the hydrogen fuel production hubs would be on the electricity grid near Robertstown, which seems to be becoming a key crossroad, with links to Port Augusta, New South Wales (coming soon), Hallett and Jamestown wind farms, proposed Goyder solar and wind, and Adelaide. There is a gas pipeline spur to Burra from the Moomba-Adelaide pipeline.

[Nort]

Heck yeah, good work SA government.

[bits]

Hydrogen vehicles would be a good use of the hydrogen.

[RiseHigh]

I have heard that the Leigh creek energy plant are saying that they can produce very very cheap hydrogen, correct me if I’m wrong but that would be a great thing for the SA economy and jobs that the lnp keep talking about. They say that they can produce it cheaper than anyone else but I think that they are in early building stages.

[rev]

Chief entrepreneur Jim Whalley urges free nuclear power in South Australia
Paul Starick, Chief Reporter, The Advertiser
November 2, 2020 9:01pm
Subscriber only

Premier Steven Marshall’s hand-picked chief entrepreneur is urging SA to consider providing free energy by coupling nuclear power with renewables to exploit a “real, natural advantage”.

Jim Whalley says hi-tech small modular nuclear reactors could be used to power places such as Adelaide, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Mt Gambier.

Mr Whalley, who was appointed South Australia’s first chief entrepreneur in 2018 and is tasked with positioning the state as a destination for innovation, said embracing all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle was a great opportunity that should be re-examined.

A Labor-commissioned Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission report in May 2016 said a high-level nuclear waste repository in SA could generate $257bn in long-term revenue, but Mr Marshall, then the opposition leader, spiked further investigation by withdrawing bipartisan support.

Mr Whalley, the chairman of defence firm Nova Systems and a former fighter jet pilot, told an Advertiser virtual roundtable of business leaders his “big idea” to kickstart the state from a coronavirus-induced recession was to examine free energy.

“I think energy is a real natural advantage we should have. I’d like to see us looking at providing free energy,” he said.

“We should be able to do it with renewables. We can definitely do it if we get smart about nuclear. We’ve got 42 per cent of the world’s mineable uranium. Even if we don’t start using nuclear energy, we can at least start supplying fuel rods, bring them all back, so they’re not used in weapons and bits and pieces like that. I think that does need to be looked at again.

“On the renewable side, we’ve got wind, we’ve got solar, we’ve got batteries – we should be the petri dish for future energy, and I’d like to see us take a real step forward there.”

Mr Whalley said this would make SA extremely attractive for energy-intensive industries, such as aluminium production.

“With the technology the way it’s evolving now, that stuff that we bring back and store now in another 20 years will actually be able to be used again,” said Mr Whalley, whose chief entrepreneur role is unpaid.

In November 2016, Mr Marshall withdrew support for further study of the case for a high-level nuclear waste repository, with the Liberals citing serious risks on both revenue and cost sides of the business case produced for the royal commission.

Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the 2016 royal commission made it clear large nuclear power generators were not economically viable.

“Small modular reactors have been proposed for several years now, but have not yet been proven up or available,” he said. “If small modular reactors become available in the future, we will assess whether they might be appropriate for our needs.”

He said SA was becoming a clean energy exporter, resulting in cheaper power.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sou ... 090831a5be

[Nort]

Chief entrepreneur Jim Whalley urges free nuclear power in South Australia
Paul Starick, Chief Reporter, The Advertiser
November 2, 2020 9:01pm
Subscriber only

Premier Steven Marshall’s hand-picked chief entrepreneur is urging SA to consider providing free energy by coupling nuclear power with renewables to exploit a “real, natural advantage”.

Jim Whalley says hi-tech small modular nuclear reactors could be used to power places such as Adelaide, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Mt Gambier.

Mr Whalley, who was appointed South Australia’s first chief entrepreneur in 2018 and is tasked with positioning the state as a destination for innovation, said embracing all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle was a great opportunity that should be re-examined.

A Labor-commissioned Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission report in May 2016 said a high-level nuclear waste repository in SA could generate $257bn in long-term revenue, but Mr Marshall, then the opposition leader, spiked further investigation by withdrawing bipartisan support.

Mr Whalley, the chairman of defence firm Nova Systems and a former fighter jet pilot, told an Advertiser virtual roundtable of business leaders his “big idea” to kickstart the state from a coronavirus-induced recession was to examine free energy.

“I think energy is a real natural advantage we should have. I’d like to see us looking at providing free energy,” he said.

“We should be able to do it with renewables. We can definitely do it if we get smart about nuclear. We’ve got 42 per cent of the world’s mineable uranium. Even if we don’t start using nuclear energy, we can at least start supplying fuel rods, bring them all back, so they’re not used in weapons and bits and pieces like that. I think that does need to be looked at again.

“On the renewable side, we’ve got wind, we’ve got solar, we’ve got batteries – we should be the petri dish for future energy, and I’d like to see us take a real step forward there.”

Mr Whalley said this would make SA extremely attractive for energy-intensive industries, such as aluminium production.

“With the technology the way it’s evolving now, that stuff that we bring back and store now in another 20 years will actually be able to be used again,” said Mr Whalley, whose chief entrepreneur role is unpaid.

In November 2016, Mr Marshall withdrew support for further study of the case for a high-level nuclear waste repository, with the Liberals citing serious risks on both revenue and cost sides of the business case produced for the royal commission.

Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the 2016 royal commission made it clear large nuclear power generators were not economically viable.

“Small modular reactors have been proposed for several years now, but have not yet been proven up or available,” he said. “If small modular reactors become available in the future, we will assess whether they might be appropriate for our needs.”

He said SA was becoming a clean energy exporter, resulting in cheaper power.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sou ... 090831a5be

I've always been a big fan of the idea that South Australia has a moral responsibility for bringing nuclear waste back for secure long term storage if we are going to be digging it up in the first place. I'm still far from convinced however that nuclear power generation is viable here. These talks of small cheap modular power plants have been happening for a long time now, but while they are yet to be commercially proven it makes sense to invest that money in widescale renewables adoption that we already know works.

All that said, it would be interesting (although I think it's very unlikely) if at some point South Australia ended up a bit like Alaska, where residents of the state receive some of the proceeds from resources sold from there. If we become a large-scale exporter of energy, the profits from that being used to subsidize local power use could be a great way to stimulate economic activity. Seems like it would require government ownership of infrastructure though.

[rev]

The modular reactors work, and will work. The Russians have several operational, one is used to power an icebreaker but can be used for a land based power plant.

Argentina is building one, and many are in the design and licensing phases.
The big difference with most of these countries, and us, is that we have the fuel source right in our back yard. Readily and abundantly available, 40% of the worlds known uranium.

It's absolutely ludicrous that we ignore this abundant energy source in our backyard. We could be among the leading nations in the world on nuclear technologies, and because of our stricter safety standards we could be pioneering the way for safer reactors. Reactors that we could then sell to other countries, and ensure a safer nuclear industry globally. We could enrich the uranium here, sell it for the reactors, and then receive the waste and reprocess it or bury it here or whatever they plan to do with it. A complete high/advanced tech nuclear industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars to the state and national economies.
Western Australia has profited greatly from simply digging up iron ore. They dig it up, load it on ships, and off it goes to places like China.
And here we are, with an opportunity starring us in the face that would allow us to become net energy exporters to the rest of the country, that would allow us to build an advanced high tech industry and innovative developments in the field globally and become global leaders, that would fill the states coffers and overfill them. There'd be so much money coming in, they wouldn't know where to begin to spend it. Every major project could be funded very quickly.

But no, we let petty party ideologies get in the way.
Instead of being the innovators and leaders, we just say no. Pathetic.

[SBD]

I suspect that we are now past the time at which it made sense to develop this industry.

Northern Power Station opened in 1985. Olympic Dam opened in 1988, but we had other radioactive mineral mines earlier than that (Radium Hill was operated by the state government before it closed in 1961).

The 1960s-1980s would have been the time that SA could have developed a nuclear power industry focused on small self-contained reactors. We had nuclear scientists who had been working at Maralinga, we had increasing demand for electricity, and mineral resources and experience processing them.

Wind and especially solar technology combined with battery storage seem to have developed far enough that starting from scratch in the nuclear power industry now would be too little too late.

[rev]

Negative Nancy strikes again.

As of October 2020, nuclear power usage is increasing globally. There's over 50 reactors/plants being built at the moment in over a dozen countries.
Plants are being upgraded and life cycles of plants being extended.
Work on new types of reactors is continuing around the world.

But this guy thinks we shouldn't get involved...because "its too late".

This is how "too late" it is..There's going to be 154 reactors shutting down by 2040..but 289 new reactors will be coming online. Too late he says.

We didn't send a man to the moon, the Americans did..why don't we stop wasting time with space and shut down the space agency and all related industry. That's basically your logic.