How will Tesla fix Australia's power issues?
There isn’t a massive
problem with the whole grid yet, it’s mostly contained to South
Australia. But there is a bit of background about this.
Australia has a National electricity grid, sort of, it covers the east coast and look like this.
One of the key issues
is South Australia (Adelaide) has no coal fired power plants anymore.
That is very admirable, but its also pretty short sighted in the way
they went about this. South Australia is completely dependent on
renewable energy and the two major links to the national grid. It
currently has no battery storage and very little storage of any kind.
This has been flagged as an issue for a while, everyone knows about
issues with renewable, you need some sort of storage or base load to
cover things when its not sunny, not windy, or load is more than the gas
fired plant (Torrens) can handle. There are smaller generators but they
are more about handling peak loads than base loads.
Batteries
and storage have been suggested as a possible solution for a while. No
one really wants to build a coal power plant in South Australia, its not
near any fantastic coal deposits like there are in the states of New
South Wales, Queensland or Victoria. Shutting down the South Australian
coal power plants is more the result of a National Grid than anything
else.
Australia’s fossil
energy resources (Wikipedia). Conveniently not located anywhere near
Adelaide apart from a gas feed from Victoria. Adelaide is where dumb
Australian luck ran out. However, its in a brilliant location for solar
and wind.
It
was apparently obvious to everyone except the our most handsome
politicians. Then a storm came and caused a bit of a problem, it knocked
out one of the key links to the national Grid. South Australia’s luck
was running out.
Having
one of these important high voltage links go completely down, and
combined with other issues, such as South Australia sitting at the end
of the NEM, other generators on the NEM playing games to make the most
money not generate the more reliable electricity, states not really
working well together, the fact South Australia is a smaller state in
population has resulted in Adelaide getting pretty erratic energy
supplies from the NEM.
Our most handsome
Politicians blame the renewable’s, despite the fact it more complicated
than that, as really it was connecting to the NEM that put the nails in
South Australia’s coal fired power stations.
So
Adelaide is ripe for a large battery installation. 25% of homes have PV
in south Australia and growing. It has large wind generation capability
due to its fortunate location. Storing some of that is going to make a
lot of sense out of that existing investment. Its going to decrease
South Australia’s dependence on the NEM, it is going to make the grid
more reliable, its going to decrease the need to run gas peaking plants,
it is going to lower costs, coal power stations can load follow more
efficiently, it is better for everyone in every way.
Coal
power is imported off the NEM, solar installations have been massive in
South Australia and increasing. With a large battery installation South
Australia will have one of the cleanest electricity supplies in
Australia.
So South Australia is well placed
for a battery install. They should absolutely install one ASAP.
Actually, Tesla should build a battery factory in South Australia. They
could then supply the battery station that will be required for Perth
and Darwin and eventually the large ones we need in the middle of the
NEM. With Victoria’s
Hazelwood Power Station
being switched off (due to age and terrible emissions), Victoria will
be in much the same situation as South Australia finds herself
currently.
Australia
doesn’t have power issues — South Australia (represent) has an issue
with supplying enough power when it is in very high demand during
extreme weather events.
It’s not as though South Australia doesn’t theoretically have
enough power to support itself in times of extreme stress. The last
time South Australia had a heatwave power had to be cut off to certain
parts of Adelaide — a practice known as ‘load shedding’ — because there
was not enough power being generated to meet demand. There was an extra
gas power plant sitting around idle at the time however the Australian
Energy Market Operator however forgot or decided not to turn it on. If
the gas plant was turned on, there would have been no need to load-shed.
In
response to that incident, the South Australian Government decided that
it was going to find a new source of electricity to power our own needs
instead of relying on the federal market operator. This is where Elon
Musk might come in.
The state government has
specified that 75% of the new power must come from a new entrant into
the market and the other 25% from renewable energy sources. Elon Musk’s
plan — to supply extra power through a 100MWh ‘battery farm’ similar
albeit larger than their pre-existing set-ups in California — would fit
both criteria if he decided to enter the market. They have not yet,
however the state government seems to be interested in the proposal. His
plan is an easy and quick fix, at least if we take his company at their
word. Musk has even offered to install it free if they can’t get the
farm up and running within 100 days of getting the contract.
Tesla
is not going to fix South Australia’s power issues...at least not yet.
They have not won or even entered the bidding for the contract. There
are many other people and proposals vying for the chance in attempting
to fix my state’s broken power system, however promising their new idea
may be.
Australia’s power plants essentially lie idle from about 11 pm at night to 6:00 am in the morning.
Batteries
would allow existing power plants to operate at full capacity 24 hours
per day. The excess power generated at night could be used to supplement
the power needed at peak times (typically early evening).
As
to the economic viability, I doubt it is there yet. Generators
currently use gas turbines to cater for peaks. Batteries are expensive,
and are inefficient at storing electricity. If batteries were cheaper in
real terms than gas turbines, electricity companies would already use
batteries instead of gas turbines.
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2017-03-27 轉載自:
中国能源报 王林
电动汽车、太空探索、火星绿洲……特斯拉创始人兼首席执行官埃隆·马斯克每一个“豪言壮志”都在向现实靠拢。
日前，他在个人社交网站上针对南澳大利亚州供电危机一事又撂下狠话：将为南澳安装电池存储系统，工时如果超100天，费用全免！
一时间，围绕南澳储能投资布局的讨论将马斯克推向了风口浪尖，暂且不提他的“百日攻坚”能否实现，南澳当前的供电困局却实打实地点燃了各方竞争热情。
《金融时报》3月13日报道称，如果澳大利亚政府允许，马斯克将在100天内为南澳安装价值2500万美元的100兆瓦至300兆瓦的新型
Gigafactory电池储存系统，旨在最大程度解决南澳供电难题。他同时承诺，如果无法在百天内让系统运营，将免费给南澳供电。
据了解，暴风雨多次侵袭南澳，致使该州不断发生大规模停电事故。由于南澳一直依赖太阳能和风能等可再生能源，电力输出并不稳定，一旦突发不良天气状况，可再生能源发电满足不了高峰用电，从而导致停电。因此，储能系统的确是保证南澳稳定供电的一个手段。
对于马斯克的“豪言”，澳大利亚总理马尔科姆·特恩布尔以及南澳州长Jay
Weatherill均予以了积极回应。特恩布尔特地在社交网站上表示，非常感谢马斯克在能源存储方面的言论，它能在解决能源危机方面发挥重要作用。 Jay
Weatherill则透露，南澳将公布新的能源政策，包括优先使用电力存储技术并予以补贴，力求大规模推广储能技术。
事实上，南澳“大停电”问题不断引发化石燃料倡导者与可再生能源支持者之间的争辩，澳大利亚正在考虑利用储能系统来解决国家电力供应挑战。2月
17日，澳大利亚标准协会（Standards
Australia）发布了储能标准路线图并指出，如果要在澳大利亚推广储能，必须首先关注储能系统的安装、产品安全和性能标准。
南澳州财政部长和能源部长Tom
Koutsantonis坦言，储能是对大停电“对症下药”。“与所有改革开始时一样，尝试和推广储能技术势必需要资金，这需要纳税人的支持，而作用是相互的，纳税人是最终受益人。”他说。
不过，马斯克并非是瞄准南澳电力供应“大蛋糕”的唯一者，他将面临来自3家澳本土电力存储公司Zen Energy、Lyon Solar
以及Carnegie Clean Energy 的竞争，这3家公司均在布局电力存储设施。
去年10月，Lyon
Solar与日本三菱达成合作，双方将共同向价值20亿澳元的太阳能及储电项目提供资金，该项目旨在于2020年在澳建立1000兆瓦的太阳能供电及储能设备。《澳大利亚金融评论报》指出，这个澳大利亚最大太阳能及储电项目，将把储能产业提升至一个新水平，在电力稳定性方面做出贡献。同一时期，澳大利亚地产和基础设施公司Lendlease与Carnegie
Clean Energy达成合作，双方将在澳大利亚开展光伏、储能和微网项目的开发、竞标、融资、施工、设备采购等合作。
《澳大利亚人报》消息称，Zen Energy将在南澳Port Augusta地区投建一个储电设施。Zen Energy董事长Ross
Garnaut表示，将在2018年初建成一个100兆瓦时的电力存储设施。“安装电池只是电力解决方案的一部分，我们需要一个完整的商业模式，包括与能源市场、客户和社区建立关系，如果抄捷径，成效会大打折扣。我们早就为此打好了基础，但我不确定马斯克可以。”他称。
《悉尼先驱晨报》指出，特斯拉已在澳大利亚推出了第二代储能系统Powerwall2，加上电池生产技术进步，投资回报正在逐渐显现，马斯克的
“百日攻坚”计划很可能得到澳政府批准。不过，澳洲智库葛拉顿研究所（Grattan Institute）分析师Tony
Wood表示：“马斯克显然又上了一回头条，但仅通过电力存储并不能从根本上解决澳大利亚的电力供应问题。”
不管如何，马斯克的大胆“举荐”进一步点燃了澳大利亚投资储能的热情，特恩布尔透过总理办公室发言人表示，将与马斯克就电池存储的价值及未来电力系统的发展继续沟通。这无疑更加肯定了储能在澳的发展潜力和优势，相信未来一段时间，该国将吸引不少储能系统开发商和投资者纷至沓来。
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特斯拉在澳大利亚启用全球最大储能电池阵列
北京时间12月1日上午消息，比预计时间提前一天，位于南澳大利亚州的特斯拉储能电池阵列已经开始向电网输送电力。这是全球规模最大的储能电池阵列。
南澳大利亚州州长杰伊·维瑟里尔(Jay Weatherill)将于本周五前往这一储能设施，为其正式揭幕。
目前正值澳大利亚的夏天，由于南澳大利亚州的气温达到30多度，而当地风力发电场的发电能力不足，因此这一储能设施被提前启用，以满足高峰时间段的需求。
目前，这一储能电池阵列的最大输出能力为59兆瓦。
特斯拉这一电池阵列的设计最大能力为100兆瓦/129兆瓦时，能在1个多小时的时间里为约3万户家庭供电。
这一储能电池阵列由PowerWall 2电池构成。特斯拉表示，这是全球容量最大、同类中最强的储能电池阵列。
未来10年内，南澳大利亚州的纳税人将为储能电池阵列的运行提供最多5000万美元的补贴。作为回报，南澳大利亚州政府可以使用该电池阵列来保障电网的供电能力。此外，电池的部分输出可以向电网提供系统安全服务，降低价格。
