On the road to a clean energy future: the integration of renewables into the grid

Our most common and longest-running forms of energy — coal, oil, and gas — have effectively powered industry and civilisation for over 100 years. But as we know, these resources aren’t finite and the unprecedented rate at which they are being released from the ground is breaking the delicate balance of our planet’s climate.

To lower our impact on the environment and to secure an energy supply for generations to come, industry pioneers are striving to put renewable energy-powered technologies on equal footing with carbon-emitting fuel sources. With pressure from private and public groups as well as government regulators, the evolution to a renewable-only world seems all but inevitable. The question is no longer if we make this shift, but how and when.

We are already beginning to address the question of how: technologies exist today that capture the energy of our sun, wind and moving water. And we are making progress towards establishing a smarter energy grid — one which enables the flexible, reliable and sustainable management of energy and the advanced capability to incorporate renewables. The question of when is also being considered on a daily basis in boardrooms across Australia and the wider world, where key energy stakeholders make decisions and place investments.

While our shift in attitudes and progress towards a greener future is promising, in reality the delivery of an all-renewable-driven world will not be easy. High costs, complex technology and operations, variable supply and the inversion of the utility model as we know it — all have a role to play. And as with game-changing innovations in other industries, traditional interests tend to protect an outdated model while new interests often rush in without fully realising the consequences of their actions.

If we are to truly commit to delivering a 100% renewable model, we must acknowledge the barriers holding us back and actively develop new ways to move forward.

Bringing down the price tag

If more and more nations, governments and people are demanding a definitive shift to renewable power, why isn’t it happening faster? It is a complicated question that requires an equally complicated answer. But historically, one main barrier has been the price tag. Renewable energy technologies simply could not compete with fossil fuels due to government subsidies that had been in place long before. However, traditional barriers to renewable adoption, such as cost, are beginning to disappear. Continuous innovation and economies of scale have driven cost down to the point where it is near parity with other ways of producing electricity. As a result, political incentives to accelerate renewable penetration will no longer be required as the economic business case simply begins to make sense.

The variable nature of renewables

Nature’s most abundant and precious energy sources — sun, wind, water — are virtually everywhere. But we are currently limited in how much or how often we can extract that energy to supply our energy demand. Most renewable energy sources are very diffuse and scattered, while energy demand is more intense and load centres are more concentrated — for example, in cities. Moreover, unpredictable factors, such as cloud coverage, wind speed and water flows, have complicated the production of renewable-based electricity for utilities.

Effective ‘Demand Management’ offers a way to overcome these challenges. The goal of demand management is to provide utilities with an alternative to building more power plants to meet capacity needs. By having the ability to modify energy usage on the demand side through smarter technology, education and energy-efficiency improvements, utilities can both save money and accommodate the demands of the prosumer movement. For example, a grid operator could switch off a piece of equipment at a factory for a few seconds in order to thwart the need for bringing a marginal peaking unit online. The trick is to do this in real time, and not only using day-ahead or hour-ahead signals for voluntary load reductions.

Renewable power operations and maintenance

A renewable power plant requires superior operations and maintenance practices to achieve optimal profitability. The moving parts in wind turbines are subject to wear and tear, especially when they are exposed to harsh conditions. Although static, inverters in solar farms need some software and hardware maintenance to avoid any drift in settings that could hinder output.

However, new technologies, including weather forecasting software and remote management, are redefining the impact of renewable energy sources. A grid operator can now evaluate the performance of an individual wind turbine and make adjustments from a control centre thousands of kilometres away. Improved operations management and streamlined maintenance plans are also yielding a greater return on investment.

Integrating renewables into the grid

The advancement of technology and the accessibility of renewables have prompted the rise of the prosumer: consumers and businesses alike who want to take a more active role in generating their own energy. In fact, more than 2 million Australians have now embraced solar power by installing their own solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, as new sources of local production come online, utilities are struggling to find effective ways to combine traditional power sources with renewables, without compromising the way the network operates.

New targets for renewable energy source deployment must be met with accurate and highly networked sensors, actuators and management systems. Poorly or partially instrumented networks downstream of secondary substations will need to be upgraded. Network architecture designed when management and integration of renewable energy sources generation was centralised and at times when there was little if any communication and intelligence in networks must be reinvented to accommodate for dispersed production not necessarily close to the new load centres. And the variable nature of most renewable generation, as well as the emergence of significant new loads like electric vehicles, can complicate load balances on lines, leading to voltage instability and even failures.

The new business model that utilities will need to integrate renewables will have at its heart a centralised intelligence system: a ‘smart’ system that integrates and manages devices — collecting data, analysing loads and capacities, sending out intelligence — but also secures the energy transactions between prosumers and markets.

It’s no surprise that we are seeing strong interest from both government and industry in smart grid initiatives here in Australia. Research published by the University of Sydney in partnership with an industry consortium found potential for a net economic benefit of up to $28 billion ($2014) over the next 20 years from the deployment of smart grid technologies in Australia.

Tipping the balance in favour of renewables

Over the last decade, we have seen a rise in investment in renewable technologies and associated renewable uptake here in Australia, with green energy sources now comprising 14.6% of all energy produced. But with a national renewables target of 23.5% by 2020, we still have a long way to go.

While change can be uncomfortable, in the case of shifting to renewables it is critical. As we overcome the barriers to creating a more sustainable energy supply, there are four key factors that will ultimately drive industry to wholeheartedly adopt a cleaner mix:

• Distributed renewables are where the humans are. While fossil fuels are often sparsely populated, solar, for example, is available everywhere, and is cost-effective in between 55°N and 55°S, where 98% of the world’s population lives comfortably, including Australia.
• Renewable generation installation is simple and can be physically placed where the consumption is. This has a number of consequences: consumers can make their own energy, competitors to the traditional utilities could trade energy between themselves; and utilities will see a decline in the need to build new infrastructure.
• Renewables are modular. Starting small and extending the capacity with the development of the demand avoids having to generate high upfront costs.
• Installation and maintenance can be simpler than the maintenance of other power generation sources.

While the path towards an all-renewable future may be paved with uncertainty and challenge, it is clear with the support of experienced intermediaries and the right technology mix that the transition is achievable and favourable.

Simon Mouat, Vice President of Energy for Schneider Electric.