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Baseload, Renewables and the impact on network operators

By Shane Brunker

It’s hard to avoid the media scrutiny, government arguments and commentator opinions on Australia’s energy networks at the moment. I saw a great slide at the recent EECON conference in Melbourne, displaying trends in energy presence in the news over the last 15 years, and we are most definitely at a high point!

It is hard to cut through the hyperbole at the moment, with contradicting arguments on the functioning of the market under AEMO, renewables versus carbon-heavy stable baseload and the way in which subsidies have impacted consumer electricity prices. I found it particularly fascinating when the Chief Exec of Powerlink described how the proposed connection of PV to the QLD network significantly exceeded the forecast demand by a wide margin – how have we managed to get ourselves here?

Amongst all of that I’m asked ‘so, what does that mean for our work in the poles and wires arena’?

I don’t think the political pressure (on network operators) to reduce bills and a political momentum to increase the amount of low-carbon generation (despite potential challenges) will go away. What will change is the need to accept the new reality and help operators run the grid at a lower cost. A need that will only increase as some parts of the grid become a backup, rather than a primary source of electricity.

I think our sector (serving the needs of engineers and asset managers) will continue to have an important role to play in all of this, but we’re going to be under constant pressure to do things better and smarter, at lower cost. In the end, the trees still grow and components still degrade, and amongst all the noise, someone needs to help manage all of that.

Keep calm and carry on!