Australian electricity grid increasingly unstable: market commission report

CANBERRA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Australia's electricity grid is becoming increasingly unstable, a report by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has found.

The report, released on Tuesday, detailed 11 instances where the grid dropped outside secure limits in 2016-17, up from seven incidents the year before and four the year before that.

It attributed the instability to changes in the power generation mix with the grid becoming increasingly dependent on renewable energy sources while coal-fired power stations were slowly phased out.

"The good news is there's enough generation and demand response capacity in the power system over the short and medium term but with more weather-driven generation (entering) and more coal-fired generation leaving, the technical characteristics of the grid are changing," Anne Pearson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the AEMC, told Fairfax Media on Thursday.

"We have enough power for the here and now but the way we manage the power system needs to change."

A report by the Energy Security Board (ESB) late in 2017 described the National Electricity Market as being in intensive care while the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) was only narrowly able to avoid a forecast complete breakdown of the system during a hot summer.

"There are indications that it is getting more difficult to manage the power system," Pearson said.

The report was released as the Australian government's prospects of reaching an agreement with all states on the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) improved with the defeat of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at Saturday's South Australian (SA) election.

Former SA ALP leader and Premier Jay Weatherill led the resistance at state level against the NEG, saying the renewable energy target of 26 percent was not ambitious enough. Enditem