Excerpt from the AFR ‘ENERGY WEEK’ story June 20 .. https://www.afr. com/policy/energy-and-climate/payoffs-to-farmers-doubled-to-secure-clean-energy-shift-20230620-p5dhyv
Headed: “Delay Eraring closure as ‘insurance’, says Transgrid’s Redman” Ben Potter and Angela Macdonald-Smith
Jun 20, 2023 – 1.28pm
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Getting more deep storage in the grid faster is the number one priority for Stephanie Unwin, chief executive of Horizon Power.
…Storage is key
Stephanie Unwin, chief executive of Horizon Power – regional Western Australia’s power utility – said the number-one thing on her list that needed to be solved to facilitate the energy transition was storage.
“In order for us to really integrate renewables and have the [firm power sources] that provide 24/7 green energy, we’ve got to solve those long duration time periods.”
Ms Unwin said lithium ion – the dominant battery technology today – probably would not be Horizon’s storage technology of choice because it can be unstable in the extreme heat of regional WA.
“We need to look for something that for us probably won’t be lithium ion, so probably vanadium flow or something else.”
Vanadium flow batteries have lagged far behind lithium ion batteries in commercialisation and are consequently more costly, but there are grid scale deployments in China and Japan, and ASX-listed Tivan aims to develop a huge vanadium deposit in WA and a battery manufacturing facility near Darwin. CEO panel at the Australian Energy Week conference: (from left) Matthew Halliday, Ampol; Brett Redman, Transgrid; Damien Nicks, AGL Energy; Stephanie Unwin, Horizon Power. Eamon Gallagher
Other transition challenges include the high cost of hydrogen – which Ms Unwin said needed to come down by a third to be viable – slow uptake of electric vehicles compared to the rest of the world, and access to skills.
Ampol aims to have 300 fast-charging bays active by the end of 2024 and CEO Matt Halliday said expanding the EV fleet would put strains on the grid that are being seen elsewhere, requiring a well-planned and co-ordinated upgrade program. However, he said the electrification path for heavy transport was not making rapid progress, with hydrogen looking like a longer-term solution and more customers inquiring about biofuels.
Despite the scale of the challenges, the energy chiefs and regulators retain a sense of optimism. Ms Unwin said one key to accelerating the energy transition will be to bite the bullet on new technologies even before they are commercially proven.
“My view is it doesn’t matter if it’s not commercial. Keep pushing the envelope there. Let’s find the funding sources that bridge the gap.”
Australian Energy Market Operator CEO Daniel Westerman said federal and state governments were “leaning in” to try to solve the transmission roadblocks, and that he was “really optimistic” about battery storage – “we just need to get on and invest and get it connected to the grid”.
But he said much longer duration batteries were required than the typical one to two hours seen in big batteries installed today.
Australian Energy Market Commission chairwoman Anna Collyer had heard both recognition of the challenges and optimism in the Energy Week discussions. “I think it’s really good that we recognise that this is a big challenge. And that means people are really focusing on how they solve those problems to get there.”
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