"Unmanaged energy": WA gears up for solar switch-off rules, to probe Christmas blackouts, Sophie Vorrath, RenewEconomy, 31 January 2022
Posted on LIVE ELECTRICITY GENERATION DATA, AUSTRALIA is a January midday West Australian South West Interconnected System supply and demand graph. It is a neat picture of the impact of heatwave conditions on demand, and the consistent January reliability of rooftop PV availability when the air conditioner load demands cut in.
“On Monday, the McGowan government again stressed the enormity of the state’s break-neck shift to distributed solar, with 191MW of new small-scale solar generation capacity added over the course of 2021, taking the total amount of rooftop solar installed on the SWIS to more than 1.3GW.
And while this amount of distributed solar can have the effect of slashing demand during daylight hours, it can also pose a unique set of problems for the grid, including managing fluctuations in a potentially huge amount of daytime solar supply.
“This unmanaged energy presents challenges on mild sunny days when rooftop solar generation is high and demand from the system is low,” the statement said.
To this end, Western Australia is preparing to allow the network operator to order residential rooftop solar systems to be switched off remotely as an emergency measure to keep the grid stable, with new rules around this coming into play within weeks.
The Labor McGowan government announced the solar switch-off measures in November of 2021, which it said would be used as a tool “of last resort,” for use over short periods on days when abundant rooftop solar generation sends demand for electricity to critically low levels.”