On behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has today announced $499,744 in funding for Monash University to investigate oscillation issues in Australia’s national energy grid.
The $1.3 million project will develop a tool to help identify the root causes of oscillatory instability and identify potential solutions. The tool will be suitable for use by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and Transmission Network Service Providers (TNSPs), and will have applications for system planning, grid connection and operations purposes.
The tool that is being developed by researchers at Monash University will allow faster solutions to the growing challenge of oscillatory instability, helping system planners design a more resilient grid.
The project is expected to reduce barriers to the connection and operation of inverter-based resources by helping system planners avoid upcoming oscillatory stability issues that can be caused by high levels of wind and solar and find solutions for this.
If this project is successful, it will provide faster insight into the nature and origin of these sorts of events, which will help all stakeholders be more proactive to manage the associated risk.
The project will increase the stability of the grid to support renewable generation growth, reduce constraints on investment in renewable generation in weak grid locations, optimise the production from existing wind and solar farms in weak parts of the grid and enable the connection of additional renewable generation by addressing the oscillation risks.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said these risks need to be addressed to avoid issues in the long term for the National Electricity Market.
“To manage the risk of instability in an increasingly inverter-based grid, it is necessary to build reliable and efficient tools that can identify root causes early,” he said.
“Researchers at Monash University are working on the best solutions for oscillations and we’re confident in the outcomes that could help in the ramp up of new renewable energy generation and storage projects.”