Power outages, climate events and renewable energy: Reviewing energy storage policy and regulatory options for Australia

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Publication Date

3-1-2021

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd The incidence of harsh climate change and weather events is having profound impacts on energy networks. In recent times, Australia has suffered several network failures and power outages that have placed human lives and community infrastructure at extreme risk. Subsequently, a diverse array of energy storage systems have been commended as a potential solution for electricity network performance and resilience issues. At this critical juncture, this review suggests that an assemblage of currently lacking targeted energy storage systems and supply development policies will be required to grow and advance future domestic energy storage assets and infrastructure; while also providing a mechanism to address changing climatic conditions, variations in electricity demand and associated demand response, and a reduced dependency on coal-fired power generation. Importantly, the recognition of energy storage systems services value across the energy supply chain will be a critical component of future systems growth. In addition, while some specific regulatory changes to create a new energy capacity market will be required, the majority of electricity market rules and procedures will need to be maintained to allow entry of energy storage systems in scheduled and semi-scheduled modes. The review also identified the requirement for strong governance that supports continued renewable energy and energy storage investment, intergovernmental cooperation, and technical network upgrades. Ideally, the implementation of these policy options and regulations should result in a robust and resilient power grid, reduced emissions and economically efficient energy storage systems rollouts.

ISSN

1364-0321

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Volume

137

First Page

110617

Disciplines

Business

Keywords

Climate change, Energy storage systems, Policy, Regulatory, Renewable energy

Scopus ID

85098464068

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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