Australian AEMO makes use of energy surges to drive rooftop photo voltaic panels to close down – are you proud of that?

First published by JoNova: “…AEMO said ever-growing solar power poses an increasing threat to the security of the grid…”

AEMO says solar power shutdown backups are needed in every state amid fears of “system collapse.”

By energy reporter Daniel Mercer
Topic: Energy industry
Mon., Dec. 2nd

The agency responsible for keeping lights running on Australia's largest power grids wants emergency power systems in every state to turn off or throttle rooftop solar panels to cope with the daily surge of power from millions of systems.

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

…

AEMO said ever-increasing solar energy poses an increasing threat to the security of the grid as it displaces all other forms of electricity generation needed to maintain system stability.

And it warned that more drastic and damaging measures would have to be taken if it was unable to reduce or shorten the number of rooftop solar periods.

These could include Increasing voltage levels in parts of the mast and line network to “intentionally” switch off or limit small solar systems in some areas.

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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 association responsible for the stability of the electricity grid on the east coast of Australia.

From the AEMO website;

Minimal operating requirements

02/12/2024

The following quotes are from AEMO’s Executive General Manager – Operations, Michael Gatt.

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

Today, electricity is fed into the grid by millions of rooftop solar panels, which can at times generate enough electricity to meet half of the total demand in the national electricity market.

As market operators, we recognize that high contributions from rooftop solar installations associated with certain system conditions need to be carefully managed to ensure power reliability and grid security while managing power system risks.

AEMO has been highlighting these emerging risks for several years and, with the support of state governments and network operators, is developing suitable emergency solutions.

The AEMO report, “Supporting Safe Operations with High Levels of Distributed Resources,” provides stakeholders with a status assessment of some of the new capabilities required to safely operate the NEM during periods of high generation from rooftop solar and low demand.

AEMO does not want to directly control the solar systems on people's roofs.

In rare cases, AEMO may need to take measures to secure the network, such as: B. by controlling off-grid scale generation to address these emergency events, which often occur simultaneously with unplanned generation and transmission outages.

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

These measures help keep the power system safe while enabling the growth of rooftop solar systems.

AEMO supports the further spread of rooftop solar systems, residential batteries and electric vehicles while ensuring a reliable power supply through a secure grid.

We do this by contributing to new market designs, trials and research, which will continue as part of the National CER Roadmap approved by Australian Energy Ministers in July.

The CER Roadmap sets out an overarching vision and plan for unlocking CER at scale and identifies actions to “unleash the full potential of CER” by putting in place the necessary mechanisms, tools and systems.

This includes measures to support the ongoing security of the energy system, in particular the requirement that emergency response backstop mechanisms be in place by the end of 2025 to ensure operational security if necessary.

This also includes reforms to increase CER's market participation opportunities, including through improved coordination that allows customers to respond to market-based incentives, which will also help address the challenges of low operational demand.

Ends…

background

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

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

Increasing the mains voltage, intentionally increasing the mains voltage to trigger security systems, seems incredibly dangerous. Even a brief voltage drop could cause house fires.

Electronic devices are designed to operate within a narrow voltage and frequency band. While some devices such as laptops and televisions are typically very tolerant of large deviations from the expected voltage band, other devices such as large electric motors, particularly appliance motors such as laundry washer or electric dryer motors, may not be as tolerant.

Additionally, a voltage spike enough to trip solar panels could also trip home switches and cause food in refrigerators and freezers to spoil.

It's time to end this crazy rooftop solar experiment. This is clearly not working, as the energy grid operator has suggested that intentional sabotage of grid voltage could be an acceptable emergency protocol to disconnect solar rooftops from the grid.

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