The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has marked its 10th anniversary this month with the release of an insights paper into the opportunities offered by pumped hydro energy storage and strategic transmission developments to lower energy costs for Australian consumers.
AEMO was established by the Council of Australian Governments in July 2009 to manage the National Electricity Market (NEM) and gas markets, and its insights paper provides a deeper analysis into the role of storage, including Snowy 2.0 and Battery of the Nation (BoTN) projects.
Chief Executive of AEMO, Audrey Zibelman said the paper found that when renewable energy availability was low, long-term storage such as Snowy 2.0 and BoTN delivered better fuel cost savings than short-term solutions.
“Conversely, shallow developments with six-to-eight hours storage potential are the most valuable in providing intra-day and day-ahead energy,” Ms Zibelman said.
“Distributed storage (batteries) with shorter discharge times will also play a critical role, providing value through capacity firming to support the grid at peak times.”
She said the NEM had to manage the increasing variability of both supply and demand from changing weather patterns, consumer behaviour, growing variable renewable generation and declining reliability of existing generators.
“AEMO’s in-depth analysis confirms the important role of energy storage to build power system resilience, improve reliability and to put downward pressure on wholesale costs,” Ms Zibelman said.
She said AEMO would shortly be launching its 2020-23 corporate plan.
AEMO’s 22-page insights paper can be accessed at this PS News link.
