An Energy Matters contributor recently started to record electricity grid generation data from a published Australian source, giving us the opportunity to begin evaluating the performance of the Australian grid. This post reviews the limited amount of data (19.5 days) presently available. The reviews show that over this period fossil fuels supplied Australia with 82% of its electricity and renewables 18%, but that there were very large differences between generation mixes in different states. They further suggest that gas-fired plants may already having difficulty balancing erratic wind generation against demand in South Australia and that, like Europe, the wind in Australia is not always blowing somewhere. Updates will follow as additional data become available.
The map below shows the location of Australia’s electricity transmission lines. Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania (via the undersea Basslink) and South Australia are interconnected and make up the National Electricity Market (NEM). Western Australia is an electricity “island”. No data are available for Northern Territory.
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