AFR: The need to ditch traditional thinking

Professionals in the renewable energy sector are already innovating when it comes to meeting Australia’s electricity needs but must continue thinking divergently as challenges emerge.

Households, businesses, industry and governments have embraced renewables to generate low or zero-emission electricity but support for it can waver at times, particularly when it comes to cost.

CutlerMerz managing director Tim Edwards says the energy sector will make the greatest contribution to decarbonising the nation and so changes are being made at speed.

However, this rapid development can’t occur while stakeholders are fused to traditional ways of working and thinking, which is not helping them to achieve optimum outcomes, he says.

As an independent advisory service provider to the energy sector - working with federal and state governments, energy sector businesses such as transmission and distribution network service providers, renewable energy developers, generators and retailers – CutlerMerz brings a range of disciplines together to tackle complex issues.

“We operate solely within the energy sector, and are multi-disciplinary, so among us are economists, engineers, and other professionals with backgrounds in energy policy, regulation, finance, project development, stakeholder engagement – we bring these disciplines together to resolve the critical issues at hand,” Edwards says.

“We tend to focus on the most strategic challenges facing the energy industry.

“Quite often we are brought in by clients to resolve an area that is multi-faceted and hard to unpack, to break down barriers and create a new pathway to an optimised outcome.”

Edwards says the show of support for renewables at a community level is most obvious in the take up of rooftop solar, and increasingly batteries and electric vehicles, collectively known as consumer energy resources (CER).

The required two-way flow of energy through the electricity grid can create grid stability issues and other suboptimal outcomes if not managed carefully, he adds.

However, when a different lens is applied to this issue, Edwards says CER is valuable rather than a hindrance and changes can be made to better harness this value.

In work for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), CutlerMerz has captured the state of the nation as related to visibility and control of CER that can be enabled through better utilisation of existing infrastructure.

“Work has already started to create what is termed dynamic operating envelopes, so even without investing heavily right now in the distribution network, there can be more rooftop PV [photovoltaic systems], batteries, and electric-vehicle energy generated and transported through the network by understanding more about the available capacity [of the grid], instead of just increasing that capacity,” Edwards says.

“Ultimately electrification is going to mean that we need to increase the capacity of the grid, but in the interim, it’s increasing visibility and control within the current grid that will create value.

“From this review (with ARENA) it is evident that these envelopes, which enable owners of CER to generate more energy, will become a permanent feature of the system, with most distributors having a timeframe to offer them to their customer base within the next five years.”

With enough visibility, control, and coordination, flexibility markets can also be created to provide CER owners with incentives to increase or decrease their generation to the grid.

“The future is coordination of CER as well as system stability where mums and dads will not only sell their excess CER but contribute to solving other system-wide issues,” Edwards says.

Meanwhile, large-scale renewable energy projects also are rapidly increasing, and one of the most pressing issues for that part of the sector is transmission network capacity required.

Challenges also exist in actively listening to the communities who will host the infrastructure.

Edwards says transmission infrastructure proponents can improve their relationships with communities through genuine attempts to minimise impacts and listening to concerns as well as devising project-specific solutions.

“The last year has seen significant strides in this space, with several state governments increasing financial compensation to landowners,” he says.

“Consultation on the route and the extent to which communities can influence and provide feedback on the proposed alignment of the transmission infrastructure does recognise the significant impact that’s imposed on them.

“There is still a desire from some impacted landowners and communities to progress an undergrounding solution [when constructing transmission infrastructure], mainly because the visual impact of transmission lines is too high, and even if it doesn’t make economic sense, they still prefer an underground solution.

“Often that turns into a community not feeling like they’re heard, when it’s actually a conundrum that is very difficult to resolve.

“More can be done on gaining and maintaining social licence, with key reforms recently initiated by the Australian Energy Market Commission to further clarify how the rules can be applied to support approval of the programs that will minimise impact on community.”

Sometimes, however, thinking divergently does not need to be revolutionary in terms of technology or process, Edwards says.

Being transparent and offering choice through alternative pathways can be just as useful to help Australians remain optimistic about the renewable energy transition.