The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has released its latest statement of opportunities ahead for the electricity sector, predicting tight supply and demand conditions in the coming summer.
The AEMO statement, the 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO), highlights the need for short- and longer-term investment in dispatchable resources and transmission.
Managing Director and Chief Executive at AEMO, Audrey Zibelman said the ESOO was developed annually to forecast electricity supply reliability in the National Electricity Market (NEM) over a 10-year period.
It also informed the decision-making processes of market participants, new investors, and policy-makers.
“AEMO observes greater risks of load shedding due to uncontrollable, but increasingly likely, high impact (‘tail risk’) events such as simultaneous unplanned outages during hot days,” Ms Zibelman said.
“The analysis demonstrates the need for urgent action and prudent planning and investment in the sector to deliver affordable and reliable electricity supply to Australian consumers all year round, but particularly during the summer period.”
She said AEMO had already begun work with the industry throughout the NEM and was working closely with Governments to prepare for summer by securing additional resources to meet peak summer demands.
“However, while expected and allowed for under current rules, we are finding this type of reactive action is imposing higher costs on consumers and risks to reliability which are not sustainable over the longer term,” Ms Zibelman said.
“A more measured course is to take a number of deliberate actions that address the challenges of our aging coal fleet and which meet the need for secure and dispatchable supply, whilst also taking advantage of Australia’s natural resources.”
She said there was a need to harness all the resources in the system, together with the opportunities that came with the technological advances occurring in the industry, to meet current and future energy demands at the lowest cost possible.
The AEMO’s 124-page Statement can be accessed at this PS News link.