South Australia’s Distributed Network Service Provider (DNSP) SA Power Networks (SAPN) has released its first- ever sustainability report containing a bunch of interesting solar-related facts and figures.
As South Australia’s only DNSP, SAPN shoulders a huge amount of responsibility; carrying electricity to and from SA customers. It supplies 900,000 homes and businesses across a network covering more than 178,000km2
“The energy sector is changing at a rapid pace, with the uptake of large-scale renewables, rooftop solar PV and, increasingly, residential batteries and electric vehicles, presenting a challenge with respect to maintaining a stable and reliable grid,” says SAPN CEO Robert Stobbe.
SAPN is also looking inward at its own operations. Development of the organisation’s inaugural Sustainability Report gave it an opportunity to reflect not just on its role in transforming energy and decarbonisation in South Australia, but also focusing on its own carbon footprint1, other environmental and social impacts, and governance.
A Bigger Job Ahead For SAPN
What was particularly interesting in the report were some of the facts, figures and forecasts in relation to solar power, home batteries, electric vehicles and increasing electrification.
SAPN has a lot on its plate already just on the residential and small commercial renewables front:
- ~300,000 solar PV systems enabled2
- ~30,000 home batteries enabled
- 1 in 3 customers in SA with solar panel – highest in NEM
- Facilitating 9 Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) in SA
And there will be a lot more to come. More than 63% of South Australia’s energy needs are already met by renewable energy (small- and large-scale) and the state is on track for 100% net renewables generation in SA by 2030. 100% of distribution network demand is already regularly met by renewables.
By 2035, SAPN says it could be dealing with:
- 4GW of rooftop solar power systems
- 2GW of home battery storage
- 2.5GW additional demand
- 500,000 electric vehicles (???)
- 2GW electric hot water
… all on a system that was designed for 3GW peak demand. The majority of SAPN’s network infrastructure assets were initially installed in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Its average asset age is now around 37 years old, with many assets exceeding 80 years old.
A range of responses to the rapidly changing energy landscape in SA have been trialled, rolled out or are being enacted; among them:
- Shifting controlled loads into the solar trough
- Flexible solar exports
- Remote solar disconnection/reconnection
- “Solar sponge” tariffs
SAPN seems pretty confident it’s up to the task ahead.
“SA Power Networks’ vision is that by 2030, all South Australians will share the benefits of the world’s most advanced, decentralised and dynamic low-carbon energy system.”
You can read SAPN’s full Sustainability Report 2021 here and check out its Sustainability Strategy 2020-2026 here.
Footnotes
- SAPN is targeting net zero greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations by 2035 ↩
- It’s not clear when that figure was current. According to the latest Clean Energy Regulator data, more than 355,000 small-scale solar systems have been installed in SA to date. But the CER’s figures also include systems that have been decommissioned since installation for whatever reasons. ↩
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Given they have known about the need to move HWS heating to solar hours for a decade I don’t have a lot of confidence
Some of those figures sound out too. 2GW of hot water? Are they assuming all gas will move to resistive electric? Nuts
While the SQ article says that more than a third of SA’s energy needs are met by non-renewables, though this may be abolished by 2030, this piece (https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/iron-ore-coal-and-copper-boom-made-aussies-poorer-not-richer/news-story/26a7ec830d13cb9dac5540514649da32) suggests bills are set to double next year. Why? Because gas sets the marginal price in the National Energy Market, gas export prices are still sky high, and SA especially is heavily heavily reliant on it – no other state is even above 10% for 12 month usage.
The SQ article also notes that most of the SAPN infrastructure were initially installed in the 1950s through ’70s, many of the assets are over 80 years old, the system was designed for a peak of 3 GW, and by 2035 there will be over 4 GW of rooftop solar alone and potentially as much as half a million EVs wanting to recharge – probably at about the same time. That will require massive investment, which will in turn require massive increases in bills – not counting the spike caused by sky high gas. The future thus looks … painful :-\
NB: For those interested in the news article, it’s about how the resources boom hasn’t translated to benefits for ordinary Australians, that LNG exporters basically pay no tax, that Labor under Gillard refused to consider any WA style of domestic gas reservation, let miners write their own tax code, and the Treasurer today, Jim Chalmers, remains scarred from his time as assistant treasurer then and is thus disinclined to touch mining taxation.
We should all brace ourselves for ‘massive bill shocks’ in the near future by the look of it.
An article on the situation in WA highlights two major facts:
1) existing grid is on verge of collapse, totally inadequate for transition to renewables, poorly maintained etc. Will cost at least $9 billion to fix.
2) however, massive sums now also needed to fix up damage done by recent and also past extreme weather events.
Western Australia cannot really afford the combined amount involved, and in any case the fix-up work needed is so large that it has to be spread over several years because of it’s nature.
As well… one commentator claimed that “… once inflation was stripped out, Western Power’s allowed expenditure was flat or even lower compared with what it was 15 years ago.”
Note: the $9 billion is an amount arrived at by a complicated government and statutory authority negotiation process which finally becomes the ‘allowed expenditure’ referred to
See: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-25/billion-dollar-shock-as-grid-renewal-costs-become-clear/101469176
Although there are some factors involved that apply just to WA, comparable situations exist to varying degrees in other Australian states.
I’m not an ABC fan, but they, and you, raise an interesting point. If the current grid is incompatible with renewable energy and, as per the SAPN article, just plain ancient, it’ll take billions to overhaul. For every billion invested in the grid, and WA alone is allocating $9 billion over the next 5 years, that’s another $100 per household, or $900 more on electricity just for the WA portion.
If usage charges rise roughly 50%, and connection fees remain the same, then the SQ recommended hybrid model of solar+battery+grid makes economic sense – you live off your solar + battery, feed your surplus into the grid, and occasionally draw from the grid if there’s several days in a row of awful weather. If connection fees rise roughly 50% however then regardless of what usage increases there are, a battery option becomes viable. Sure you’ll probably need a generator to go offgrid, but if power rises too much, offgrid will be the cheaper option. Yes this assumes FITs fail to rise or even reduce. SQ keeps saying they’ll go up, but that’s not my observation – retailers are setting FITs at a point you can’t break even for usage most months of the year.
Has SQ done any (recent) articles running the numbers? I periodically run very rough numbers – I’m not an expert so guessing at costs, but can see what my usage and costs are.
George Kaplan,
“If the current grid is incompatible with renewable energy and, as per the SAPN article, just plain ancient, it’ll take billions to overhaul.”
It’ll take billions of dollars invested to upgrade the grid with whatever technology is used, OR, as you put it, the “plain ancient” existing system will inevitably progressively shutdown, and then the lights go out more often.
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/australia-electricity-price-problem/#comment-1476495
https://www.csiro.au/en/news/news-releases/2021/csiro-report-confirms-renewables-still-cheapest-new-build-power-in-australia
Coal and gas are NO LONGER CHEAP.
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/coal
https://www.aer.gov.au/wholesale-markets/wholesale-statistics/gas-market-prices
“Sure you’ll probably need a generator to go offgrid…”
George, using what fuel, at what cost, and will it continue to be readily available in future?
Petroleum fuels, particularly diesel/gasoil, are NO LONGER CHEAP and ABUNDANT.
Bloomberg (and others) are reporting diesel fuel stockpiles are “thin” at key hubs in Europe, USA and Asia.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-25/diesel-pinch-looms-as-world-seeks-relief-from-pricey-natural-gas
We are now in a post- ‘peak oil’ supply world, with petroleum fuels becoming increasingly scarcer.
https://twitter.com/aeberman12/status/1574818535888617473