Solar curtailment / backstop

Lester — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 03:25:21 GMT

Looking into power suppliers in each state, and curtailment (backstop) of solar generation, I found some very interesting info here on our (South Australian) supplier SAPN website . . .

https://www.sapowernetworks.com.au/your-power/quality-reliability/solar-curtailment-for-minimum-system-demand-events/

In particular, it was interesting to note from that page, if ever AEMO orders SAPN to stabilise the grid from overload or other such issues, they do it in the following priority . . .

In order, the steps we take as the grid operator in these events are:

Turn off large-scale solar and wind farms.
Turn off large-scale solar systems such as shopping centres and factories.
Turn off the exporting of rooftop solar using the regulated Relevant Agent and Dynamic Export functions.
Turn off any remaining exporting rooftop solar using our Emergency Voltage Management (EVM) function.

So residential and smaller commercial / industrial rooftop solar are a fair way down the list.

This is a bit of a relief, I thought the little folk would be less of a concern to authorities than big solar / wind operations, and protecting big corporate interests.

Thinking about it, it's likely that curtailing or shutting down big operations would be easier / quicker than regions of solar on residential, maybe that's the reasoning behind this.

Not sure how other states address this in their policies, that could be the norm directed by AEMO.

Hopefully we won't see this control needed much for the smaller solar installations at all.

topic Solar curtailment / backstop in Solar, Batteries & Electrification

Solar curtailment / backstop