Latest news with #Aemo
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Search for new power transmission options as cost of overhead powerlines in Australia soars
Australia's electricity market operator is considering new infrastructure options in the rollout of wind, solar and storage, in response to a 25 to 55% increase in the cost of overhead powerlines. Its draft Electricity Network Options Report, released Friday, recognised the potential for local resources such as rooftop solar and battery storage to play a much larger role in the reliability and security of the power system, complementing transmission lines. Aemo also flagged it would 'revisit' transmission line projects – apart from those already committed or 'anticipated' [under way] – in response to rising infrastructure costs and challenges in gaining community acceptance for new powerlines to regions with high wind and solar potential. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Feedback on Friday's report will inform the next iteration of Aemo's Integrated System Plan (ISP), the nation's electricity transition roadmap, which is updated every two years to reflect changes in policy, costs and technology. The federal government is aiming for 82% renewable electricity by 2030. Along with rising expense of overhead power lines, the estimated cost of new substations – which connect large, high voltage powerlines to local power networks – also increased by up to 35% compared to cost estimates prepared for the 2024 ISP. Transmission line and substation cost increases were primarily due to materials, equipment and workforce pressures, the high number of projects under way, their complexity and the need for additional community and landholder engagement along proposed transmission line routes, the report said. Social licence was important, Aemo said, because while a significant number of Australians felt positive about the energy transition, many had limited understanding of the practical changes involved. 'Trust remains fragile and significant gaps in knowledge remain, with public confidence in government, industry and transmission developers remaining low, particularly in impacted communities,' the report said. 'The optimal transmission line is the one that you can actually get built,' said Alison Reeve, energy and climate change deputy program director at the Grattan Institute. She said deeper engagement with communities living under proposed transmission lines was a necessary step, and that a 'top-down, technocratic approach' had contributed to community pushback. 'The key thing is that communities are well-informed, that they have a clear sense of what the projects entail, and there's transparency around the process for decision making,' said Andrew Bray, national director of RE-Alliance, a not-for-profit focused on community advocacy during the energy transition. Bray welcomed Aemo's greater emphasis on engagement and issues important to regional communities such as agricultural land use, First Nations heritage and community sentiment. 'That's absolutely a good thing, and it's something we've been advocating for ourselves for many years,' he said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Prof Bruce Mountain, head of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, said Aemo's report recognised that a swift transition to renewable energy relied on working 'with the grain, rather than against it'. He said that due to the higher-than-expected costs and community impacts, 'these big, 500kV bulk transmission lines have been struggling everywhere'. 'The towers are very big, easements [land-use corridors] are very wide, and so the land-use impacts are huge.' Mountain has long advocated for improving the capacity of local networks and maximising the use of rooftop solar and storage potential in cities and towns, alongside 'judicious' use of transmission lines. Aemo's report said the distribution network would play an increasingly important role in delivering reliable and secure energy by linking and coordinating rooftop solar and household batteries, and other distributed resources, as part of one integrated power system. Reeve agreed that maximising opportunities on the distribution network made sense, so long as regulators took care to avoid gold-plating(unnecessary investment that leads to higher costs for consumers). 'The chunk of generation that's coming from rooftop solar is enormous,' she said. 'Most of that is on the distribution network, which means if you're not planning for it, you're actually missing a big part of the picture.'
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Mild winters and trend towards electrification will push back gas shortage until 2028, Aemo says
High gas prices and a shift towards running homes and businesses on electricity has helped delay an expected gas shortage in Australia's southern states until 2028, a government agency says. A report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) said the increased cost of the fossil fuel and trend towards electrification had combined with mild winters to reduce gas use. It said the delayed closure of the Eraring coal power plant in New South Wales, from August this year until 2027 at the earliest, had also cut forecasts of how much gas would be needed. As a result, gas shortfalls on days of peak use were not expected until 2028, three years later than previously expected, Aemo said. Longer-term supply gaps over seasonal and annual timeframes were also now forecast to occur later than previously in 2028 and 2029 respectively. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The finding may ease pressure to find a short-term solution to the expected shortfall in Victoria in particular, as existing fields in the Gippsland and Otway basins run out of gas. Aemo's chief executive, Daniel Westerman, said the report, titled The Gas Statement of Opportunities, highlighted structural changes in the east coast market. He said solutions being considered to address the shortfall included new production, new gas storage facilities and short-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. The gas industry and some other business leaders have called for governments to allow new fossil fuel basins to open and be developed. Dylan McConnell, an energy systems expert at the University of New South Wales, said increasing gas supply was not the only way to address shortages. 'The other obvious option is to reduce demand,' he said. He said for residential and commercial uses, this could be achieved by switching from gas to renewable electricity and battery storage and improving energy efficiency. Aemo's report said the LNG export industry was the biggest gas user in the country, dwarfing consumption from all other sources including households, local industry and gas-fired power generators. It said there was uncertainty about the scale of gas needed for electricity generation, but it was expected to play an increased role as backup power source at times when renewable output was low. Gas power currently provides about 5% of electricity in the National Electricity Market (Nem) that supplies the five eastern states and the ACT. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Alison Reeve, the deputy director of the Grattan Institute's energy and climate program, said as coal power stations closed, most modelling suggested indicated a small amount of gas would be required as backup while the rest of the market transitioned to renewable energy. 'Gas is not going to replace coal. Coal is going to be replaced by renewables,' she said. Labor has a target of 82% renewable energy by 2030, with higher percentages expected after that, based on gas and energy storage in batteries and pumped hydro providing backup. The Coalition has said, if elected, it would slow the rollout of renewable energy, rely on more fossils fuels, including an increased amount of gas, and eventually build nuclear power plants at seven sites, mostly after 2040. The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, said Aemo's report showed the gas market outlook was improving and 'now secure into 2029'. 'Gas has an important role to play in our energy system as we transition towards 82% renewables,' he said. 'Unlike coal or nuclear, gas power generators can be turned on and off in a couple of minutes and when it's off, it's zero emissions.'
