Each week we post an update of some of the interesting developments relating to future energy systems that have caught our eye. Within the IGov research we are focusing on developments in a number countries including Germany, Denmark, New York, California and Australia, but are also tracking developments more broadly across a number of continents. The weekly update will report on these.
Global Insight
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Global Insights: 10th April 2018
AUSTRALIA Tesla big battery proves it’s worth The Tesla big battery in South Australia, the Hornsdale Power Reserve, is a 100MW/129MWh battery. In the first quarter of this year it has proven its worth in the Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) market by showing its speed and accuracy, in comparison to a conventional large steam turbine, to respond to frequency control events. This speed is also being recognised in the battery’s ability to respond to major faults in the system. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is expecting to use batteries in its new System
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Global Insights: 27th March 2018
AUSTRALIA Market Operator report recognises the need for changes to market design for energy system transformation The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released a report last week looking at the dynamics of the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM). The NEM covers the five eastern states and has a world leading percentage of households (25%) with solar PV installed. There is also a rising amount of large-scale renewables and this, coupled with increased rates of extreme weather events has prompted AEMO to evaluate the design of its markets to incorporate the changing generation mix and demand profile. The
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Global Insight : 20th March 2018
AUSTRALIA South Australia to have a new Liberal government This weekend South Australia (SA) went to the polls and elected a new Liberal (conservative) government to be led by Steven Marshall. The previous Labor (centre-left) government had been in power in the state since 2002. In 2011 Jay Weatherill took over the party leadership and has since been instrumental in the push for renewables in SA. Previous to the election the Labor government had pledged that SA would have 75% renewable generation by 2025. Although the Liberal’s had pledged to slash this target, this is
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Postcard from Australia: Adelaide
Postcard from Adelaide Helen Poulter, IGov Team, 19th March 2018 On March 17th, South Australia (SA) will go to the polls to elect their state government and energy is dominating the campaign. Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia. SA has the highest adoption rates of large-scale renewables and domestic DER of any of the states of the National Electricity Market (NEM). In the case of DER the State has the highest percentage penetration rates in the world with 31% of households having PV installed. As a result, SA is currently experiencing problems associated with
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Postcard from Australia: Melbourne
Postcard from Melbourne Helen Poulter, IGov Team, 2nd March 2018 One issue that is being spoken about repeatedly here is how the governance structure of the National Electricity Market (NEM) of the Eastern States of Australia is slowing electricity system transformation. Melbourne is the capital city of the State of Victoria. Victoria is different from the other States in the NEM because for a number of reasons it is able to make quicker governance changes. It is this inability of all the other Australian states to move quickly within the NEM which may see the current mass
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Global Insights: 20th February 2018
Australia See our latest series on postcards from Australia, so far from Sydney and Canberra. Coming soon…Melbourne. Europe Share of German citizen renewable energy shrinking A few weeks ago we reported an infographic which indicated that up to 2016 citizens (households and farms) accounted for 42.5% of renewables ownership in Germany. At the same time the ‘Big Four’ German utilities, who used to cover 75% of the market, only account for 5.4%. Whilst at first glance these figures are impressive energytransition.org argue that these statistics don’t show how recent changes to renewable energy support is making community or citizen ownership
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Global Insights: 13th February 2018
Australia See our latest series on postcards from Australia, so far from Sydney and Canberra Europe European Commission approves capacity markets in six Member States The European Commission has given State Aid clearance for capacity markets in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland, covering more than half the EU’s population. This follows Commission approval for capacity markets in Great Britain in 2014, and also in France and the Irish Single Electricity Market. The design of these most recent capacity markets differ: strategic reserves in Belgium and Germany, market-wide mechanisms (i.e. like the UK’s own
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Postcard from Australia: Canberra
Postcard from Canberra Helen Poulter, IGov Team, 12th February 2018 Last week I reported that the uptake of solar PV and storage was not completely due to the economic benefits that it can produce, but also to the idea of owning new technology. This idea – that Australians embrace new technology – was confirmed again this week, and although the FiT rate initially offered was extremely generous, it was also this willingness to try something new that led to the world-leading percentage of household ownership. Being in Canberra there has to be a political angle. When
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Global Insights: 6th February 2018
Australia South Australia’s state premier has just announced a plan to create a network of 50,000 home solar systems backed by Tesla Powerwall batteries, in effect creating one of the world’s largest virtual power plants. The project will begin with a trial on 1,100 public housing homes which will have a 5kW PV system with a 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall battery. Government grants will provide installations free of charge to homeowners. Europe German renewables growth – when is the grid ‘full’? As a new governing coalition takes shape in Germany it appears that the ambitions of the
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Global Insights: 31st January 2018
Australia Household grid services In a blog from Reposit Power, a company providing storage controllers on PV homes and a market mechanism to enable householder access to be rewarded for providing grid services, they set out how their customers responded to recent grid problems in the South Australia. Looking a two recent incidents when the grid could not cope with demand, they show how their household customers in Victoria and South Australia stepped in to prop the electricity grid up, through the sale of the stored energy in their solar batteries. This is shown over
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