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https://reneweconomy.com.au/radical-change-needed-to-upgrade-system-to-handle-tidal-effect-of-renewables-evs-and-rooftop-solar/>
"Turning Australia’s energy system today into one that can handle the expected
influx of electric vehicles (EVs), PV rooftops and big wind and solar requires
an equally massive change in the way we plan for it, says Energy Catalyst
principal Mark Paterson.
He likens the country’s current energy system to a DC3 aeroplane, a now-vintage
aircraft that has been renovated to work today but can’t handle the demands
that modern life requires.
“We have inherited a grid from the last century. We have now had some 200 rule
changes since the inception of the National Energy Market NEM (in 1998), and
every one of them is a major process,” Paterson tells Renew Economy.
“At best that gets us to a DC7. What we need is a Space X launch vehicle.
“We think that we’re getting [Space X] from our incremental changes but they
only get us to a DC7. This is one of the largest, most complex systems that
humans have ever created, and we are transforming it to do things that the
original architects of the system never possibly imagined.”
He says Australia’s energy system – as it is – will not be able to handle the
projected four- to five-fold increase in rooftop solar, for example, nor the
Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) step change scenario, which is seen
as the most likely forecast for the future.
Paterson says the whole energy system needs a transformation process that can
upgrade the entire sector from grid to institutions.
The task is daunting.
“Ultra complex systems need an appropriate or commensurate process of
transformational design. We don’t have one. We have 200 rules changes and lots
of incremental tweaks but we don’t have a process of transformational design
that is informed by the scenarios the industry accepts,” he says.
A whole-of-system approach to modifying Australia’s entire energy system
requires that first, the country accepts there is a problem. Then it likely
involves a decade of planning that incorporates everything from technology
considerations to market design to regulatory design and social licence."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
