South Australia sets spectacular new records for wind, solar and negative demand

Records continue to be broken on Australia’s main transmission networks as spring weather boosts wind and solar power production and mild weather moderates demand, but none as spectacular as those that occurred in South Australia.

The state’s unique end-of-the-line grid is already leading the nation, and likely the world, in the integration of variable wind and solar power, with an average of more than 70 percent of demand over the past year and a world-first goal of 100 percent net renewable energy by 2027 r.

At 9:35 a.m. Sunday, the state set a new milestone by setting a new record for wind and solar power (as a percentage of national electricity demand) at 150.7 percent, breaking the record set on Christmas Day last year when, for plaintiffs obvious – the demand for electricity was small.

As Geoff Eldridge of GPE NEMLog notes, this means that rooftop solar, along with large-scale wind and solar farms, generated 50.7 percent more energy than the state’s total electricity demand at the time.

The scale of excess production crystallized further later in the day with a new record for minimum instantaneous residual demand reaching minus 927 megawatts at 12:35 p.m.

Eldridge says residual demand is what is left to power other generators after wind and solar power have met some of the demand. Negative residual demand means that wind and solar power were producing more electricity than SA needed, resulting in excess renewable energy generation that could be harnessed through exports and battery charging. The rest is limited.

Of the 927MW surplus, the state exported 685MW to Victoria, a further 163MW was absorbed by the state’s growing fleet of battery storage projects, and 730MW of capacity was curtailed. Prices at the time were minus $47 per MWh, which was a good opportunity to charge batteries.

Another 84 MW was produced by a handful of gas generators – not because their power was needed, but because the state, at least at the moment, relies on them for essential grid services such as system strength and short-circuit current.

This amount will be significantly reduced when the new link to NSW is completed in a few years, allowing the state to both export more and import more if needed.

“Balancing the system with such high renewable penetration is difficult but necessary as the energy transition continues,” Eldridge says. “Managing excess generation through exports, storage and curtailment is critical to maintaining grid stability and efficiency.”

This wasn’t the only record set this weekend. In Queensland, the country’s most coal-dependent state in terms of annual share of demand and generation, large-scale solar power plants reached a record share of 34 percent, and coal production – in megawatts – reached a record low of 2,882 MW.

The capacity of Queensland’s coal fleet is over 8,000MW, which is about as low as capacity can be achieved until more units are closed.

On Saturday in Victoria, just before the AFL grand final, rooftop solar also hit a new record high of 3,164MW – although this did not result in a drop in operational demand enough for the market operator to implement minimum system load protocols and possibly shut down some rooftop installation. solar panels to maintain grid stability.

He flagged a potential MSL event on Friday, but canceled it in the morning. These events are likely to occur at different times in the spring and summer holidays, although the market operator is currently working on new regulations for large batteries to avoid the potentially unpopular and inconvenient shutdown of solar installations.