Power April 2022 Intl - 7

GLOBAL MONITOR
fired plants would be retired by the early
2040s. Closure announcements for
some major coal-fired units occurred in
February; Origin Energy said it was set
to retire its 2,800-MW Eraring black coal
plant (Figure 1) in 2025, seven years
ahead of schedule, and replace it with
700 MW of energy storage at the site
in New South Wales. " Origin's proposed
exit from coal-fired generation reflects
the continuing, rapid transition of the
national energy market, " Frank Calabria,
Origin's CEO, said in a statement. " The
reality is the economics of coal-fired
power stations are being put under increasing,
unsustainable
pressure
by
cleaner
and lower-cost generation, including
solar, wind, and batteries. "
" I believe Australia is well-positioned
to transition away from coal power
plants, " said Patrick Lee, CEO of PXiSE
Energy Solutions, a company with extensive
experience working in Australia.
" While the move to clean energy won't
happen overnight, the Australian government
has laid the groundwork to prepare
clean energy sources to take the
place of coal. They're being smart about
it-they're not approaching this as a
simple 1:1 replacement where battery
storage will replace coal plants, which
would be very expensive. "
Lee told POWER he sees Australia
PWR_HalfPgAd_Victory_Trust Certified Expert.pdf 1 2/28/2022 2:30:41 PM
" tackling the issue with three layers to
fill the gap that coal plants will leave.
First, adding battery storage, which can
be done at the coal plants and other
strategic points of the network. Doing
this can help maximize the efficiency of
the coal plant's remaining life while taking
advantage of existing transmission
infrastructure. Second, enabling the grid
so they can partner with utilities to integrate
large scale renewable assets and
including large number of solar PV [photovoltaic]
and storage assets behind the
meters; and third, through market enablement
by AEMO's DER [distributed
energy resource] Marketplace, continuing
to incentivize independently owned
and distributed energy assets to participate
in the wholesale energy market to
improve the investment economics. By
combining utility-grade energy storage
and customer assets with intelligent
grid control software, Australia can leverage
all these assets as a holistic
system, rather than siloed power plants
of the past, and prepare the grid for the
loss of coal power plants or sudden loss
of renewable resources without causing
major disruption. Progressive energy
policy, the adoption of cleantech solutions,
and support for a renewable marketplace
will all help make Australia a
clean energy leader and more prepared
than most countries to wean itself off
traditional power sources like coal. "
Arij Van Berkel, vice president, group
director of the Energy Research Team
at Lux Research, told POWER the vast
economic footprint of coal in Australia- " the
Australian economy relies on
coal mining for about 10% of its GDP
[gross domestic product], " he said-
complicates the energy transition. " It
will not be easy to completely phase
out coal power for that reason. Closing
its largest coal-fired power plant with a
capacity of 2.8 GW early is a good start
and a wise decision, " said Van Berkel,
adding, " Australia will not have an issue
finding alternative generation capacity
for that 2.8 GW. "
Van Berkel said replacing that generation
" can be done in time [within three
years] through a combination of gasfired
power, solar power, and batteries.
Getting an early start to phase out coal
power makes for an easier roadmap. In
M
I
Trust a Certified Expert For the Life of Your Boiler.
Our Aftermarket Services team is the perfect solution to keep your boilers operating at peak performance. Whatever the need - boiler
sales, rental, installation, inspection, training, routine maintenance, or spare parts provisioning, our team is deployment ready 24/7.
(Daytime) 877-783-2665
April 2022 | POWER
www.powermag.com
833-741-0718 (Anytime)
7
A
F
T
R
E
A
C
R
K
P
S
E
S
T
T
E
A
L
I

https://www.victoryenergy.com/

Power April 2022 Intl

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Power April 2022 Intl