A National Electricity Grid For Australia  

Neil Howes has a post at TOD ANZ proposing a scheme to create a national electricity grid by linking a number of unconnected regions using HVDC links - A National Electricity Grid For Australia.

We are proposing that the Government of Australia facilitates the replacement of 50% of Australia’s base-load coal fired electricity generation by financing the building of a high capacity National Electricity Grid (NEG) by 2020. This will interconnect high value renewable energy sites for wind, solar and geothermal energy to enhanced hydro electricity pumped storage capacity enabling these low CO2e energy sources to provide base-load power to major retail and industry consumers.

The objective of the plan is to :

(1) Link the East Coast and Tasmanian electricity grids (known as the NEM - National Electricity Market) to the Western Australian electricity grid via a 1500Km high voltage DC (HVDC) connection between Norseman, WA and Pt August SA,

(2) Build a new 1000 Km HVDC connection between Leigh Creek SA and Roma, QLD to link the SA and QLG regions within the NEM, in order to access solar and geothermal sites in WA, SA, VIC,NSW and QLD.

This would also require;

(3) A high voltage AC (HVAC) extension and upgrade of the WA grid north of Norseman, via Kalgoorlie, to the proposed Pilbara local grid to access stranded natural gas (NG) power in WA mining communities and solar thermal sites in the NW of WA

(4) A HVAC interconnection from Norseman to Esperance and Albany wind power sites with increased capacity HVAC connections along the SW coast of WA t4 Perth. This infrastructure project will assist the development of all renewable energy resources, starting with developing wind resources along the SW coast of WA, West Coast of Tasmania, and coastal and highland wind sites in SA, VIC, NSW and QLD with an installed capacity of 28GW by 2020.

The second component of the plan is an expansion of the existing 1.2GW hydro pumped storage capacity to 6GW, to be located in the at existing Snowy and Tasmania hydro sites and additional sites in WA, NSW and QLD. As a start on replacing the remaining 50% coal fired base load beyond 2020 the development of other renewable energy sources should be started with the building of at least 4 concentrated solar thermal (CST) sites, each of 250MW capacity, and each with the capability to be expanded to 2GW capacity, and two geothermal sites in the Eyre Basin. These sites would be connected to the expanded NEG, with the aim of having more than 2GW solar and geothermal capacity by 2020 and the long term aim of replacing some of the remaining 11GW coal fired base-load capacity by 2035, if geothermal and CST can deliver lower cost power than coal fired power using carbon sequestration.

The third component is to increase the supply of renewable energy sources by tying “free” carbon pollution reduction permits given to high carbon intensity export industries to the financing of new renewable energy capacity per year equivalent to 2% of the total carbon permits, and a 5% per annum decline in the number of “free” carbon permits not auctioned. ...

Australia has exceptional wind, solar and geothermal potential resources. The best wind resources are along the SW coasts of WA, W coast of Tasmania, the southern coasts of SA and VIC and the far N coast of QLD. More localised good sites are also available on the NSW tablelands. The best solar sites are located in the low rainfall regions of central Australia and especially in the WA Pilbara plateau, a region using considerable diesel and NG energy for mineral and LNG exports, but lacking electric grid capacity. The WA government has announced plans to develop a local grid in the Pilbara region and expects that power demand will exceed the present 3GW used in the SW region of WA. Large geothermal resources are present in the SA Eyre Basin, but distant to present electric grid connections.

Australia has exceptional pumped storage hydro resources and could expand this capacity to absorb energy during off peak periods, but most of this infrastructure is located in SE Australia and Tasmania. Presently hydro provides 6.7% of electricity generation but up to 18% of short term peak capacity (8.5GW). This could be expanded to 13.5GW by the addition of 5GW pumped storage capacity, to the existing 1.2GW capacity, if improved transmission capacity was available.

WA presently generates most electricity by NG, duel coal /NG fired gas turbines and some coal. It also has considerable power generation by stranded diesel or NG gas turbines, located in the gold fields and at NW shelf oil and gas fields especially the LNG facilities at Karratha. Expansion of wind power is limited in WA to the South-West Interconnected System (SWIS) grid off-peak load of 1.7GW. An expansion of the SWIS grid to the gold fields and Pilbara, interconnecting Albany and Esperance grids to Norseman and Perth and a 2 GW HVDC link to East Coast and Tasmania via Pt Augusta, could allow an expansion of WA wind resources to 6GW capacity, provide a saving of peak NG use and increase the security of supply in case of a NG supply failure( as occurred at Varanus Island).

The wind resources of SW of WA are considerable and geographically isolated from East-Coast locations. Interconnection of west-coast and east-coast grids would enhance overall wind-power reliability. WA has very little opportunity for hydro-electric pumped storage but does have limestone caverns in the SW suitable for developing compressed air / NG assisted gas turbine generators as a off peak energy storage. If successful this capacity could be expanded to make better use of WA’s NG resources and reducing CO2e from NG used for electricity production. Other pumped storage systems such as tidal-assist could be explored on the NW shelf region.

WA has the best solar resources in Australia, but the locations in the NW of the state are isolated form the SWIS grid. Worley Parsons in collaboration with major mining companies located in the Pilbara region of WA are investigating the feasibility of building multiple 250MW CST sites. If one or more CST stations were sited along the northern Gold fields NG pipeline, and connected to Perth and Eastern Australia grids, CST stations in Western and Eastern Australia would extend the solar power generation time by 2-3 hours, matching peak power demand and avoiding the need for any solar energy storage. ...