Standalone power systems could confer up to $1.5 billion in saved network costs and community resilience to disaster
Edge-of-grid communities are under increasing threat of debilitating power outages due to disasters driven by climate change. A new report quantifies the benefits of transitioning some 244 communities to microgrids or individual power systems.
SA Water is pumping with the power of the sun
Nicola Murphy, SA Water’s Senior Manager, Zero Cost Energy Futures has the sunniest disposition as she works steadily to ensure the substantial energy needs of the state’s vital water utility are solar powered from source to faucet.
Surprise loss of ~420 MW of rooftop PV in South Australia shows forecasting key for future
An unexpected loss of more than 400 MW of rooftop PV in South Australia earlier this month has reinforced how critical accurate forecasting tools are for the management of networks with high shares of renewable energy.
The secrets to inverter success in Australia’s utility solar sector
SMA Australia had a bumper year in 2020, despite increasing competition and Covid-19, and partly because of the West Murray crisis. What’s next?
One perfect 100% renewable day in SA
As Christmas lights twinkled their last, South Australia’s electricity grid spent a whole day basking in sunshine and turning towards brisk summer breezes. Renewables ruled — a taste of future feasting on clean energy.
NT mining town transitions to tourism hub powered by renewables
A mining town in the Northern Territory will be renewed by renewables after a multimillion-dollar cash injection from the Gunner government.
50 Megs more of distributed storage called for in WA’s south west
WA continues to work through its precise roadmap to manage the state’s vast distributed rooftop solar resources and enable further uptake of renewable generation. Pre-Christmas, Western Power is seeking to engage private enterprise in providing a value stack of storage services.
Weekend read: Performance guaranteed
Guarantees and warranties may be thought to deliver peace of mind, but when underperformance on rooftop systems is detected, diagnosing and demonstrating failures is no simple task. pv magazine’s Virtual Insight on Quality event in November tackled this issue from all angles – and what it means for Australia’s burgeoning rooftop segment.
The future of power electronics is distributed, aggregated and service oriented
IHS Markit released a white paper in which the analyst outfit shared some predictions for the power electronics market. First and foremost, inverters will become smarter, and after some power outages in key markets, these devices are gearing up to take on more grid stabilising tasks, which hitherto had been reserved for synchronous generators.
AEMC to review smart meter rules
The Australian Energy Market Commission has launched an independent review into the rules governing electricity meters to see what needs to be done to accelerate the take-up of smart meters.
