AEMO has published a list of priority actions as part of the Engineering Framework to prepare Australia’s power system for future operational conditions, including periods of 100% instantaneous renewable penetration by 2025.
Developed through a prioritisation process with stakeholders, the near-term actions being led by industry and AEMO balance the best interests for consumers and the need for timely action.
AEMO Manager of Future Energy Systems, Chris Davies, said the latest update captures work already underway in the industry and identifies near-term priorities.
“The Engineering Framework considers and seeks to leverage actions already being led across the Energy Security Board (ESB), market bodies, and industry to address priority gaps,” Mr Davies said
This includes consultations to implement a new system strength framework and rule changes considering market-based mechanisms to dispatch resources for system security.
“Stakeholders have expressed a strong desire to understand the specific actions that will be prioritised in the near term to start addressing the most pressing gaps and decisions that will enable operation with fewer synchronous generators online, widespread uptake of rooftop solar, and extensive grid-scale renewables,” Mr Davies said
“Based on this, AEMO has worked with stakeholders to identify the actions where AEMO can provide most value in the short term to support the energy transition in the NEM,” he said.
AEMO has also identified a number of proposed new actions where the implementation pathway is not yet clear. Collectively, the actions outlined in this report represent an initial body of high priority near-term actions.
Engineering Framework priorities for near-term action
AEMO will be providing an updated report on the Engineering Framework in Q4 2022 that will summarise the status of all potential gaps identified in the Initial Roadmap, as well as exploring future priorities and implementation pathways in more detail.
Developed over months of stakeholder consultation, the priority actions report builds on existing insights and collaboration during the development of the Engineering Framework March 2021 report, operational conditions report, Initial Roadmap, and Application of Advanced Grid-scale Inverters in the NEM paper.