First published JoNova: “… AEMO said the ever growing output from solar was posing an increasing threat to the safety and security of the grid …”

AEMO says emergency powers to switch off solar needed in every state amid ‘system collapse’ fears

By energy reporter Daniel Mercer
Topic:Energy Industry
Mon 2 Dec

The body responsible for keeping the lights on in Australia’s biggest electricity grids wants emergency powers to switch off or throttle rooftop solar in every state to help cope with the daily flood of output from millions of systems.

In a report released on Monday morning, the Australian Energy Market Operator said “emergency backstop” powers were urgently needed to ensure solar installations could be turned down — or off — in extreme circumstances.

…

AEMO said the ever growing output from solar was posing an increasing threat to the safety and security of the grid because it was pushing out all other forms of generation that were needed to help keep the system stable.

And it warned that unless it had the power to reduce — or curtail — the amount of rooftop solar times, more drastic and damaging measures would need to be taken.

These could include increasing the voltage levels in parts of the poles-and-wires network to “deliberately” trip or curtail small-scale solar in some areas.

…

Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-02/aemo-demands-emergency-backstop-to-switch-off-solar/104670332

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is the industry body responsible for the stability of Australia’s East Coast electricity grid.

From the AEMO website;

Minimum operational demand

02/12/2024

The following quotes can be attributed to AEMO’s Executive General Manager – Operations, Michael Gatt.

Australia’s electricity system was originally designed for power to flow from large power stations through a network of substations and power lines into homes and businesses.

Today, electricity from millions of rooftop solar systems feed back into the grid, which can at times generate enough power to meet half of total demand across the National Electricity Market.

As the market operator, we’re aware that high contributions of rooftop solar coinciding with certain system conditions needs to be carefully managed to ensure electricity reliability and grid security while managing power system risks.

For several years, AEMO has flagged these emerging risks and with the support of state governments and network operators are developing appropriate emergency solutions.

AEMO’s ‘Supporting secure operation with high levels of distributed resources’ report provides stakeholders with a status assessment on some of the new capabilities required to securely operate the NEM in periods with high levels of generation from rooftop solar and low demand.

AEMO does not want to directly control people’s rooftop solar.

In rare circumstances AEMO may need to take action to secure the grid, such as directing off grid-scale generation, to solve these emergency events which often occur at the same time as unplanned generation and transmission outages.

However, after all these actions have been exhausted, the temporary management of rooftop solar by network operators under state government solar management programs may still be required although we expect this may only occur in very rare circumstances.

These actions assist in keeping the power system secure, while also enabling the growth of rooftop solar installations.

AEMO is supporting the continued uptake of rooftop solar, residential batteries and electric vehicles while maintaining reliable electricity support through a secure grid.

We’re doing this by contributing to new market designs, trials and research, which will continue through the National CER Roadmap, approved by Australia’s Energy Ministers in July.

The CER Roadmap sets out an overarching vision and plan to unlock CER at scale and identifies measures to “unleash the full potential of CER” by establishing the required mechanisms, tools and systems.

This includes measures to support ongoing power system security, particularly the requirement for backstop mechanisms to be in place by the end of 2025 for emergency response to ensure operational security when required.

It also includes reforms to increase the opportunities for market participation of CER, including through enhanced coordination, allowing customers to respond to market-based incentives which will also help meet the challenges of low operational demand.

Ends…

Background

State rooftop solar management programs: Queensland, South Australia, Western Australiaand Victoria.

Read more: https://aemo.com.au/newsroom/media-release/minimum-operational-demand

Spiking grid voltage, deliberately spiking grid voltage to trip safety systems seems insanely dangerous. Even a brief voltage excursion could start house fires.

Electronic devices are designed to run within a narrow band of voltage and frequency conditions. While some devices such as laptops and TVs are usually very tolerant of large deviations from the expected voltage band, other devices such as large electric motors, especially appliance motors such as clothes washing machine motors or electric clothes dryers, they might not be so tolerant.

In addition a voltage spike sufficient to trip solar panels could also trip house breakers, leading to food spoilage in refrigerators and freezers.

It is time to bring this insane rooftop solar experiment to an end. It clearly isn’t working, given the energy grid operator has suggested deliberately sabotaging grid voltage might be an acceptable emergency protocol to disconnect rooftop solar from the grid.