Curtailment of distributed PV is occurring in South Australia on Wednesday 16th November 2022

As happened earlier this week (like noted here on Sunday and Tuesday), the AEMO has informed the market that curtailment of distributed PV in South Australia is again occurring during daylight hours.

Here’s a snapshot from NEMwatch v10 at the 11:30 dispatch interval:

Highlighted in the Market Notice window in the image is the MN103278 (about DPV3) published at 10:10:54 to alert the market that this had commenced, and was (at the time) expected to continue until 17:00 NEM time:

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MARKET NOTICE
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From :              AEMO
To   :              NEMITWEB1
Creation Date :     16/11/2022     10:10:54

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Notice ID               :         103278
Notice Type ID          :         GENERAL NOTICE
Notice Type Description :         Subjects not covered in specific notices
Issue Date              :         16/11/2022
External Reference      :         Distributed PV Contingency 3 (DPVC3) in the SA Region on 16/11/2022

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Reason :

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE

Distributed PV curtailment is occurring in the SA region to maintain system security due to a Distributed PV Contingency condition.

The instruction to maintain demand above the required threshold is expected to end at 1700 hrs 16/11/2022

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

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END OF REPORT
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This one followed MN103270 at 08:23 as follows:

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MARKET NOTICE
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From :              AEMO
To   :              NEMITWEB1
Creation Date :     16/11/2022     08:23:42

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Notice ID               :         103270
Notice Type ID          :         GENERAL NOTICE
Notice Type Description :         Subjects not covered in specific notices
Issue Date              :         16/11/2022
External Reference      :         Distributed PV Contingency 2 (DPVC2) in the SA Region on 16/11/2022

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Reason :

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE

AEMO has taken action(s) to maintain power system security in South Australia at 0820 hrs 16/11/2022 due to a forecast Distributed PV Contingency (DPVC) condition.

AEMO actions may include the recall of planned outages, a direction and/or instruction to scheduled and non-scheduled generation, and/or an instruction to maintain DPV generation below a secure DPV generation threshold.

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

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END OF REPORT
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… which in turn followed MN103261 yesterday evening at 21:37 as follows:

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MARKET NOTICE
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From :              AEMO
To   :              NEMITWEB1
Creation Date :     15/11/2022     21:17:39

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Notice ID               :         103261
Notice Type ID          :         GENERAL NOTICE
Notice Type Description :         Subjects not covered in specific notices
Issue Date              :         15/11/2022
External Reference      :         Update – DPV Contingency 1 (DPVC1) in the SA Region on 16/11/2022

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Reason :

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE

Update to Market Notice 103254

AEMO has detected there is an elevated risk of the contingent disconnection of Distributed PV (DPV) with the loss of scheduled generation exceeding secure thresholds in the South Australia region from 1000 hrs 16/11/2022 to 1600 hrs 16/11/2022. The maximum forecast DPV contingency is 117 MW at 1330 hrs and the DPV contingency direction trigger is 36 MW.

AEMO is seeking a market response.

An insufficient market response may require AEMO to take action or intervene to maintain power system security in South Australia. This may result in action such as the direction of scheduled generation, curtailment of non-scheduled wind generation, and/or an instruction to maintain DPV generation below a secure DPV generation threshold.

AEMO estimates the latest time at which it may need to intervene through an AEMO intervention event is 0830 hrs on 16/11/2022

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

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END OF REPORT
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In the train of market notices for this event (and others this week) the DPV1 notices include the sentence:

‘AEMO is seeking a market response’

… and a question arose … ‘what sort of market response AEMO might be seeking’?

The answer that’s been relayed to me is that these AEMO processes are established to repeat in the years as the energy transition has continued to build:

1)  my understanding is that at some point in the future there might be Virtual Power Plants with sufficient scale that might choose, as a result of the DPV1 notice, to curtail rooftop PV under their control (or take some other action);

2)  but at the moment that’s not the case – so a DPV1 notice is a fair bet that AEMO will proceed into DPV2 and DPV3 (i.e. curtailment via the DNSP etc).

As Dan Lee noted yesterday, Thursday’s (i.e. tomorrow) expected to see a large level of rooftop solar production … so will probably also feature a large level of curtailment.