11 January 2018, The Conversation, A month in, Tesla’s SA battery is surpassing expectations. It’s just over one month since the Hornsdale power reserve was officially opened in South Australia. The excitement surrounding the project has generated acres of media interest, both locally and abroad. The aspect that has generated the most interest is the battery’s rapid response time in smoothing out several major energy outages that have occurred since it was installed. Following the early success of the SA model, Victoria has also secured an agreement to get its own Tesla battery built near the town of Stawell. Victoria’s government will be tracking the Hornsdale battery’s early performance with interest. Generation and Consumption Over the full month of December, the Hornsdale power reserve generated 2.42 gigawatt-hours of energy, and consumed 3.06GWh. Since there are losses associated with energy storage, it is a net consumer of energy. This is often described in terms of “round trip efficiency”, a measure of the energy out to the energy in. In this case, the round trip efficiency appears to be roughly 80%. The figure below shows the input and output from the battery over the month. As can be seen, on several occasions the battery has generated as much as 100MW of power, and consumed 70MW of power. The regular operation of battery moves between generating 30MW and consuming 30MW of power. Read More here
Category Archives: Building Resilience
4 December 2017, Inside Climate News, Microgrids Keep These Cities Running When the Power Goes Out. Borrego Springs, California, is a quaint town of about 3,400 people set against the Anza-Borrego Desert about 90 miles east of San Diego. Summers are hot—often north of 100 degrees—and because it lies at the far end of a San Diego Gas & Electric transmission line, the town has suffered frequent power outages. High winds, lightning strikes, forest fires and flash floods can bust up that line and kill the electricity. “If you’re on the very end of a utility line, everything that happens, happens 10 times worse for you,” says Mike Gravely, team leader for energy systems integration at the California Energy Commission. The town has a lot of senior citizens, who can be frail in the heat. “Without air conditioning,” says Linda Haddock, head of the local Chamber of Commerce, “people will die.” But today, Borrego Springs has a failsafe against power outages: a microgrid. Resiliency is one of the main reasons the market in microgrids is booming, with installed capacity in the United States projected to more than double between 2017 and 2022, according to a new report on microgrids from GTM Research. Another is that microgrids can ease the entry of intermittent renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, into the modern grid. Utilities are also interested in microgrids because of the money they can save by deferring the need to build new transmission lines. Read More here
29 November 2017, Geoff Summerhayes, Executive Board Member, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. The Weight of money: A business case for climate risk resilience. Tonight will be the first time I’ve substantially addressed APRA’s thinking around climate risk since a speech I delivered to the … Continue reading →
25 October 2017, ENOVA One Step Off the Grid: Enova launches community “Solar Garden” for those who can’t install. NSW community energy retailer Enova has launched a first-of-its kind project that will enable renters and others who can’t intall rooftop solar to invest in a “solar garden” and benefit from reduced bills. The idea is to build a 99kW rooftop solar system – most likely on a business – and “sell” the panels in 1kW chucks to consumers that can’t put solar on their own roofs, either because they are renting, they live in apartments, in houses that are shaded, or can’t afford to invest in a whole system. Enova held a public meeting in the northern Rivers town of Brunswick Heads on Tuesday to sell the idea, which it says could be the first of many such “solar gardens”, particularly as it moves into the major metropolitan markets of Newcastle and Sydney early next year. “We’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Enova chair Alison Crook said. “People have been saying they want to install solar but they can’t do it …. this makes rooftop solar more affordable and accessible for everyone. We didn’t think that we’d be able to offer this so quickly – but it is here.” The savings from a solar garden are not as great as having your own rooftop solar, but according to Enova’s numbers they are substantial, and can offer a rapid payback time. Customers will be able to buy capacity in increments of 1kW. The upfront price is expected to be $1,000 for each 1kW, and the returns could up to to 23 per cent a year (in the form of a $230 reduction in annual energy bills for each kW). That represents a payback of less than 5 years. The deal lasts for 20 years. Read More here