The East Coast power system of Australia has the worst frequency regulation in the developed world. This puts the system at risk whenever an event occurs which requires the generators to respond quickly – they can’t respond quickly if they have to wait for the system frequency to go outside its control system dead band.
As NEM wind power plants progressively work towards implementing FCAS, the criticality of ensuring that the power system either a) takes account of the variability in the wind forecasts coming from the wind power plants in the coming 5-7 minutes and follows the wind direction, or b) sets an appropriate dispatch level to ensure wind variability is minimized, becomes even more important for market and power system operators.
Following on from the Let’s Talk About FCAS post, the focus of this post is the business case and subsequent optimisation challenge for getting involved in FCAS, now that the technical performance components have been mostly addressed.
What are the lessons about frequency regulation that can be learned from the SA blackout?
[PART 2 of] a post by guest author, Bruce Miller – which was initially posted on LinkedIn as one piece, but which has been broken into two on WattClarity as each part serves different purposes.
[PART 1 of] a post by guest author, Bruce Miller – which was initially posted on LinkedIn as one piece, but which has been broken into two on WattClarity as each part serves different purposes.
Low energy prices in South Australia combined with high prices for Raise Regulation
Quick review of a spike in FCAS Prices in South Australia on Tuesday 18th April 2017 – leading to Administered Pricing for Raise Regulation Services.
The South Australian Blackout of 28th September 2016 is not as simple as it looks.
Generators used to consider the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) FCAS causers pays factors (CPF), used to allocate FCAS regulation costs across the market, as an obscure and unimportant technically challenging curiosity. Since 2014, the cost of FCAS regulation services for generators has increased from just under $5 million per year to greater than $60 million for 2016 and now has the attention of all of the generators, especially if their portfolio includes generation assets in regions with a lack of FCAS regulation providers and high prices such as South Australia.
The National Electricity Market (NEM) is designed to operate at 50 Hz. Frequency deviation occurs when generation and load are mismatched. It is important in a lightly meshed and long network such as the NEM to maintain tight frequency control and that frequency response is available throughout the network.
Ancillary Services Matter! No longer just realm of electrical engineer or energy trading boffins, ancillary services (and particularly Frequency Control Ancillary Services or FCAS which will concentrate on today) have become front and centre in so many ways that barely a day goes by without market observers referring to grid stability, inertia or frequency management.
AEMO issued a Market Notice this morning for an LOR2 “Low Reserve Condition” in South Australia. Here’s my sense of some of what’s happening.
My curiosity was piqued today when I saw the AEMO had lobbed in a Market Notice titled “Zero Regulation Dispatched”.