Antinuclear

….Our national electricity grid (mostly on the eastern and southern states) is the result of decades of growth, largely built on legacy operation — large, remote, baseload coal power plants that need to operate continuously.

This resulted in the three tier generation comprising baseload, intermediate and peaking.

Baseload is the term used to describe the large coal-fired power plants that were designed to provide cheap, continuous power. In fact because of their size and design it was not feasible to greatly reduce their output overnight, so it was necessary to provide an incentive to consumers to use power at night to keep them running efficiently.

This was the “off-peak” hot water and other time independent loads that were encouraged through very low tariffs……….

Improving forecasts

There are a number of alternatives to managing this variability, such as more accurate renewable generation forecasting and demand response (i.e. specific actions to reduce customer loads, such as payments for reducing consumption).

Wind power generation can now be forecast with useful accuracy. In Australia, wind forecasting is now better than 10% error for 40 hours ahead, and better than 4% error for 1 hour forecast…….

Solar forecasting is a bit more challenging, as it is heavily reliant on local sky conditions (i.e. cloud cover) but satellite imaging and sky cameras are now providing very useful results. Better forecasting reduces the uncertainty in ensuring supply always meets demand.

Storage: the Holy Grail

A different way to match supply and demand is to use energy storage………

Distribution solution

A more ideal solution perhaps is to distribute the storage in and around the users, particularly homes, businesses and industry. This storage can still be charged from the grid, if necessary, but can provide local power when needed, such as during peak times. This reduces the peak load on the transmission and distribution system, which has been a major component of recent rises in electricity prices.

Widespread solar PV, especially on homes, may provide the catalyst for uptake of household and small business battery energy storage.

Solar PV is a wonderful, clean, quiet and increasingly inexpensive power source. It is expected that PV prices will continue to decrease as manufacturing scale and research provide higher efficiency and lower cost materials………

A combined PV and storage system could make a lot of sense for both homeowners and utilities, if the cost of storage was acceptable. Homeowners could store excess PV during the day for use at peak times, avoiding high tariffs, and utilities could benefit through less peaky demand and reduced need for augmentation.

Germany, a long time leader in PV installations, has recently introduced a subsidy for battery storage installed with PV. The subsidy is up to 30% of the system price, with 7,000 of these battery systems installed in 2013. This subsidy is to assist homeowners cover the battery costs.

Decreasing costs……..Will battery prices fall to the same extent that has happened with PV in the last five or so years? It’s difficult to predict, but many technologies use inherently low cost materials, and are capable of many thousands of cycles. The need and prospect of massive battery uptake is also driving a lot of research into new storage technologies.

The biggest factor is the roll out of electric vehicles……http://theconversation.com/how-to-get-renewable-energy-into-the-grid-without-losing-power-30961