Energy, The Grid and Battery Storage: The Energy Transition from Coal and Gas to Electricity
Part 3 of 4
By Randall Pearce
My grandfather, who lived in Miller St Alphington, was a buyer of thermal coal for the Victorian Railways steam trains. My uncle was an engineer on the Snowy Mountains Scheme and was construction manager of the first Yallourn W coal-fired power station boilers; long before the mechanism and impacts of climate change was well understood.
I studied chemical engineering and have worked on capital and research projects for many industrial consumers across the energy, chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries since 1974; many of which focused on improving energy efficiency and reducing operating costs. This has led to my keen interest in the ongoing innovations and transitions in the Australian energy industry.
Our dilapidated fleet of old brown coal-fired power stations generate high carbon dioxide emissions and are no longer financially viable when compared with the rapidly rising renewable alternatives. Gippsland’s natural gas resources are dwindling and contain increasing carbon dioxide proportions. Fugitive leakage of gas (mostly methane) from production sites and distribution systems, contribute significantly to greenhouse gases, since methane contributes around 80 times the effect of carbon dioxide.
Whilst gas is convenient, its usage must be progressively reduced to meet global reduction targets. Fortunately, as the power grid is being progressively decarbonized, electricity has now become the most cost-effective domestic energy utility. The transition of consumers away from gas to electricity will save hundreds of thousands of dollars by not reticulating gas into new developments. What gas is available from remaining reserves should be limited to the type of users for which no effective alternatives are available.
Examples of these are:
High energy consuming manufacturing industries for which electrification would require a massive capital investment, or where alternatives are not currently available, or to prevent them going out of business.
Process industries using the petrochemical components of methane and ethane as a feedstock for conversion processes. In the longer term, biological processes should provide many of these feedstocks, as new processes are developed.
Small gas-fired steam turbines, which are an effective short-term fast-response source of electricity generation when power from renewables is in short supply. Over time, long-duration batteries, pumped hydro and other long-term energy storages should practically eliminate this gas usage as well.
As the cost of gas stays high and its availability diminishes, the consumption of gas by businesses and households will continue to drop. The transition to electric ovens and cooktops, charging of electric vehicles, and heat pump space heating, are now accelerating the growth of early evening power demands. The consumption of electrical energy is predicted to grow quickly, particularly through late afternoon and evening peaks between 4pm and 9 pm.
Energy distributors use expensive control systems to finely balance the supply and consumption of power throughout the grid. This is particularly challenging as energy suppliers transition toward generation from renewables and deliver variable levels of energy outputs. However, the more control systems and infrastructure that the distributors build, the more you and I will pay for our electricity! The distribution companies are entitled to increase their charges to cover the cost of any new investments they make in their infrastructure, such as poles, wires, transformers and substations.
There are many regions where the daytime exports of rooftop solar power are so high, that distributors are imposing restrictions on the amount of new rooftop solar to be installed, despite it being a cost-effective investment for consumers. Unless a lot of electrical energy can be captured and used locally, distributors will continue to make expensive additions to the poles, wires, transformers, substations, and distribution centres that carry power in from regional areas.
It is becoming apparent that a rapid rollout of medium-sized batteries in neighbourhood areas could become a fast and effective way to deal with this accelerating energy transition away from fossil fuels. The batteries load energy to reduce the oversupply in the middle of the day and store it for peak evening use.
It is hoped that the Village Power Community Battery project will help to demonstrate resilience and cost benefits to our community and the distribution grid, which can be rapidly scaled up to benefit the evolving national energy network.