Forecasted NEM capacity to 2050 under AEMO’s Step Change scenario. Source: AEMO.
As the role of coal declines and ends in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), huge growth in dispatchable energy storage capacity will be needed in the mix, along with other technologies.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has this week launched its Integrated System Plan (ISP) which offers a 30-year roadmap for reliable and increasingly low carbon-based operation of the NEM, which AEMO oversees and runs.
As the share of solar PV and wind – which are both variable sources of generation – grows in the NEM’s generation mix, other resources are needed to integrate that capacity and balance the grid.
AEMO noted that as of today, about 23GW of dispatchable firm capacity comes from coal-fired generation and 11GW from gas and other liquid fuels. A further 7GW is…