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Renewable energy, largely from wind turbines, now provides a majority of power in the state.

By ALEX McKENZIE

This week, the South Australian government celebrated reaching its 50 per cent renewable energy target eight years early after data showed 53 per cent of power generated over the past year came from renewables.

South Australian Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the state was leading the nation in renewable energy generation and investment.

But the state’s energy transition has not been smooth. South Australia has been at the forefront of a national energy crisis as blackouts and load-shedding have plagued the state and electricity prices have skyrocketed, particularly since the state-wide blackout in September. 

In response, the federal government attacked South Australia, arguing the state’s push for renewables led to its energy problems, while the state government said renewables were not to blame for the intense storm that contributed to September’s blackout.

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Twenty-three power pylons were  damaged in the wild storms.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) recently released its final report into South Australia’s heavily politicised blackout, concluding sensitive protection settings on the wind turbines were largely to blame, however this has not been put to rest.

The Blackout

On the day the lights went out, wild storms swept across South Australia, causing substantial damage to the power grid. The wind destroyed 23 pylons and three out of four interconnectors between Adelaide and the north and west of the state.

The wind turbines' sensitive protection settings automatically shut them down during the severe storm, decreasing the wind energy output and placing strain on the Heywood interconnector, a cable that supplies electricity from Victoria.

The interconnector shut down for safety reasons as demand surged, leaving South Australia isolated from the national grid. Energy production did not match demand and the whole state lost power.

Who’s to blame?

The federal government blamed the system failure on South Australia’s dependency on renewables.

Wind farms supply more than 42 per cent of South Australia’s energy, with the remaining power coming from gas, solar and imports from Victoria through the Heywood interconnector, mostly from brown coal burned in the Latrobe Valley.

Monash Energy Materials and Systems Institute deputy director Dr Ariel Liebman said the AEMO was not aware these particular energy settings existed.  

“[It had] nothing to do with whether it’s wind or some other technology, but it’s just a fact that those settings were set wrongly for the configuration of the system,” he said. 

“Because the wind turbines are relatively new technology, the transmission companies who are responsible for connecting them, and AEMO, had not optimised those settings yet … those settings have now been reset.”

Former CSIRO chief of Atmospheric Research (1992-2002) and current Monash senior research fellow Dr Graeme Pearman said it was a mixture of issues that occurred simultaneously, and that the energy mix of gas, wind and solar was not solely to blame for the outage.

“We were unprepared for the extremes that occurred, particularly when the power pylons came down, disrupting power in the first place,” he said.

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A complete power blackout hit South Australia, shutting down trains and many essential services. 

South Australia’s new energy plan

In response to the blackout, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill announced a $550 million energy plan, calling the scheme a “game-changer” and a solution to the instability of the South Australian electricity grid.  

The six-point plan includes the construction of the largest battery in Australia to store renewable energy and a state-owned 250 megawatt gas power plant, and gives South Australian Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis the power to intervene in the electricity market in “extreme circumstances”.

Before this Bill was passed a couple of weeks ago, the AEMO regulated South Australia’s electricity grid, controversially shutting off power in designated areas as demand peaked with a process called load-shedding.

The federal government’s response

Just two days after Premier Weatherill announced South Australia’s energy plan, the federal government unveiled a $2 billion upgrade to the Snowy Hydro Scheme, a large producer of hydroelectricity.

The expansion aims to produce an additional 2000MW of renewable energy for Australia, more than the the recently closed 1600MW Hazelwood power station produced and more than the 1532MW production capacity of South Australia.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Snowy Hydro expansion would be more effective than the South Australian battery power expansion.

“In one hour, it could produce 20 times the 100MW/h expected from the battery proposed by the South Australian government,” Mr Turnbull said in a press release.

Dr Pearman said this argument was simplistic.

“[This is] a classic example of a politician using an option that takes a little bit of the heat out of the situation ... [it] is going to take years and not just six months,” Dr Pearman said.

He said the Snowy Hydro upgrade would add stability to the grid as more renewables were added.

“Malcolm Turnbull’s proposal for Snowy Hydro certainly is going to be a kind of insurance policy against things getting more challenging, and the storage is needed for the system in the future, as more renewables are integrated.”

The expansion of the Snowy Hydro will involve nine new power stations, more than 100km of tunnels and provide power to an extra 500,000 homes. A report will be done on the feasibility and technical viability of the project by the end of the year. 

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Victoria's brown coal-fired power stations provide support energy to South Australia.  

South Australia vs The Federal Government

The recent energy policy dispute between federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and Mr Weatherill highlighted the division between the federal government and most state governments on energy policy and renewable energy targets.

Dr Pearman said South Australia had become a role model for its energy policies. While he said they should be adopted by the rest of Australia, it had to be done with care. 

“There has to be a transition … it needs to happen as rapidly as possible but can’t just suddenly happen, otherwise the disruption would be quite serious,” he said.

“The reality is that the answers are complicated and they require integration of … different sourcing of energy, different ways that we use energy … that needs an overall policy that shouldn’t be a knee-jerk reaction from any one political party.”

Dr Liebman said he would like to see a more coordinated approach in tackling these problems.

“We need more governments working with the whole community, particularly the research community, who have a lot to offer in these times of changing technological circumstances, and I don’t know that the government and consultants … well-equipped enough to handle this,” he said.