CANBERRA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Australia is facing electricity supply shortages as coal-fired plants are phased out, the market regulator has said.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on Tuesday updated its Electricity Statement of Opportunities report, calling for urgent investment in long-duration energy storage, generation and transmission to guarantee supply in the late 2020s.
The report said the main electricity grid -- the National Electricity Market (NEM) -- will likely avoid shortages in 2024 but that risks would escalate in later years as coal plants are shut down faster than renewable projects start generating energy.
Supply gaps that were previously predicted for 2023-24 have been forestalled by new gas, wind and battery projects, but AEMO forecasts they could re-emerge from 2025 onwards as coal-fired power stations stop supplying electricity.
Without significant increase in energy projects, AEMO warned the entire east coast could fall short of reliability standards within five years, leaving more than half the Australian population facing blackouts.
"These gaps widen until all mainland states in the NEM are forecast to breach the reliability standard from 2027 onwards, with at least five coal power stations totalling approximately 13 percent of the NEM's total capacity expected to retire," Daniel Westerman, chief executive of AEMO, said in the media release.
"Investment in firming generation, such as pumped hydro, gas and long-duration batteries, is critical to complement our growing fleet of weather-dependent renewable generation to meet electricity demand without coal generation."
The federal government's climate bill, which passed through the parliament in September, locked in a 43 percent emissions reduction target from 2005 levels by 2030 and committed to boosting renewable power generation from about 30 percent of the grid currently to 82 percent by 2030. ■