3. Hydro
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Valley Power, Latrobe Valley, Victoria Australia
300MW Open Cycle Natural Gas
6 x 50MW Peaking Plant – Snowy Hydro
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4. Eraring Power Station
4x 660 MW Black Coal
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Yallourn Power Station
1,490 MW Brown Coal – 4 units
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4
5. Tallawarra Power Station
435 MW Combined Cycle Natural Gas
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Muja Power Station
2 x 200 MW + 2 x 227 MW Coal
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5
6. Electric Power Consulting Pty Ltd
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Electricity Green Schemes
• National Schemes
– Large Renewable Energy Target (LRET)
• includes large wind, solar & hydro
– Small Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES)
• including solar water heaters, heat pumps, solar panel
systems, small-scale wind systems, small hydro
– Carbon Tax
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7. Electricity Green Schemes
• NSW Schemes
– Energy Saving Scheme (ESS)
• incentives to save energy
– Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme (GHGR)
• CO2 abatement scheme – targets with penalties
– Solar feed-in tariff (was gross – now net)
• Other States
– Solar feed-in tariffs
– Others?
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Energy Environmental Objectives
• Resource Sustainability
– How many years can we keep up our current use of resources
before they run out?
• Reduced Carbon Emissions
– How many tonnes of CO2 emissions/year can be saved?
• National Energy Independence
– Can we sustain our energy needs without undue dependence on
overseas supplies?
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8. Australian Fuel Sustainability
Proven Reserves (approximate)
Fuel
At current At Australian
production rates usage rates
Brown Coal 1,000 years 1,000 years
Black Coal 100 years 240 years
Natural Gas 72 years 112 years
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Carbon Intensity
Tonnes of
Fuel
CO2 /MWh
Brown Coal 1.4
Black Coal 0.9
Natural Gas
Open Cycle Gas 0.65
Turbine
Natural Gas
Combined Cycle 0.4
Gas Turbine
Hydro 0
Wind 0
Solar PV 0
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9. Construction Cost
$ Capital
Tonnes of
Fuel Construction
CO2 /MWh
Cost/MW
Brown Coal 1.4 High
Black Coal 0.9 High
Natural Gas
Open Cycle Gas 0.65 Low
Turbine
Natural Gas
Combined Cycle 0.4 Medium
Gas Turbine
Extremely
Hydro 0
high
Wind 0 High
Solar PV 0 Very high
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Dispatch
$ Capital Dispatch
Tonnes of
Fuel Construction Capable
CO2 /MWh
Cost/MW
Brown Coal 1.4 High Yes
Black Coal 0.9 High Yes
Natural Gas
Open Cycle Gas 0.65 Low Yes
Turbine
Natural Gas
Combined Cycle 0.4 Medium Yes
Gas Turbine
Extremely
Hydro 0 Yes
high
Wind 0 High No
Solar PV 0 Very high No
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10. Ability to Rapidly Change Output
$ Capital Dispatch Ability to Rapidly
Tonnes of
Fuel Construction Capable Change Output
CO2 /MWh
Cost/MW
Brown Coal 1.4 High Yes No
Black Coal 0.9 High Yes No
Natural Gas
Open Cycle Gas 0.65 Low Yes Yes
Turbine
Natural Gas
Combined Cycle 0.4 Medium Yes Moderate
Gas Turbine
Extremely
Hydro 0 Yes Yes
high
Wind 0 High No Nil
Solar PV 0 Very high No Nil
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Wind
• Every 100MW of wind generation requires
about 90 MW of conventional generation for
backup
• All wind generation needs a “dancing partner”
• Wind is only financially viable with LRET
• Will most likely be the main method of
reaching the 20% renewable target for 2020
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11. Solar Photovoltaic
• Lends itself to distributed use at the
domestic level
• At 60 c/kWh and other green
scheme subsidies it becomes
attractive to customers
• Is causing network stress
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Embedded Generation Issues
• Benefits Negatives
◦ Voltage rise
– Reduce network losses
◦ Cold load pick up
– Delay augmentations?
◦ Dual power flow analysis
– Voltage support?
◦ Some network
– Green kWhs? augmentations required
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13. Modeled Large Scale Wind
13% Wind
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SA Wind
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14. Modeled Large Scale Wind
Constant Load – Dancing Partner
70% of 0.65 Tonnes CO2/MWH OCG= 0.45 Tonnes CO2/MWH
Compare with 0.4 Tonnes CO2/MWH for CCG
30% Wind
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CO2 Emissions
+ >
Wind OCG CCG
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15. AEMO Data
Carbon Tax
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Conclusions
• Renewables are only viable with government
legislated green schemes
• Wind and solar PV generation require large scale
conventional “backup” power generation –
dancing partners
• Economics will drive much of the “back up”
generation to be open cycle gas:
– Capital cost
– Higher CO2 producing plant
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16. Conclusions
• The current policy settings are increasing the use of natural gas
– reducing Australia’s sustainability in terms of energy reserves
• Greenhouse gas savings are coming mainly from:
– the switch from coal to natural gas
– Less energy use due to high energy prices and price elasticity
• Wind and solar PV in their present form are making little or no direct
contribution to CO2 savings
• New energy storage breakthroughs are required to make renewables
viable
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Important Issues
• Increased focus needed on:
– end use energy efficiency
– Using less electricity
– electricity network losses
• Research
– energy storage
• Change of emphasis from:
– “feel good” green schemes to policies that have some solid engineering
logic
• Electricity Network costs
– getting away from feast and famine capital investments
– improved performance of regulators
– taking a longer term view
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