The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will fund the development of a cloud-based connections simulation tool for new grid connections to Australia’s electricity networks, namely from renewable energy developers.
A total of $2.23m will go towards the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) for this proposed new tool to assist project developers prepare for applications such as new solar or wind farms, thereby reducing time connecting to the National Electricity Market (NEM).
ARENA chief executive Darren Miller said the development of this tool would help integrate and fast-track renewable energy into the energy system.
“Australia’s energy system is evolving rapidly with most of the growth in generation coming from rooftop solar and large scale solar and wind,” he said.
“The proposed connections simulation tool will assist large scale developers by providing a detailed source of energy data and modelling that incorporates our electricity systems, thereby allowing them to accelerate their development process and manage potential risk before going through the formal grid connection process.”
AEMO has worked with developers and network businesses in the last four years to connect 121 new generation projects.
Despite this growth, there are 97GW of proposed generation projects, double today’s entire NEM capacity, which includes 46GW of wind, 33GW of solar and 10 GW of hydro.
The $12.95m project will be the first step of a staged approach for the delivery of AEMO’s Australian Energy Simulation Centre, which was investigated through an ARENA-funded feasibility study in 2019.
Testing will soon commence with industry participants on a working prototype, followed by a staged rollout of the connection simulation tool.
The first major release is planned for the end of 2021.
