Rob, Acorn, I have worked in Perth where renewables curtailment has not been an option. I was thinking this might be another part of the equation you might like to investigate. The SWIS uses a merit order with renewables in top position so it runs its production straight into the grid. We have therefore curtailed fuel based plant which is possible because the capacity of most coal and gas generators is below 400MW From memory, the load capacity of the SWIS is up over 6000MW of which we seldon saw a need for much of a load above 4000MW (even in our boom times). That said we rarely had blackouts. Importantly, even though Customer bills are impacted by the government's CSO payment to cover the retail shortfall (so taxpayers do pay!), our electricity costs have continued to rise since the abandonment of the SEC in 2006, the boom and of course the intro of renewables.
It is interesting to read the idea about curtailing renewables, though, coming from a Perth view. I, like Rob, think that storage is a later option if not at all due to the bells and whistles approach to renewables. Akin to dig a hole then dig deeper! It is effecting those with an inability to pay - like expensive medicine: changing the path of health away from Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidising a selected list of medicines because you have a reason e.g. antibiotics are becoming ineffective. Changing systems as an experiment rarely works unless there is no other course - clearly we have time.
