IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2021 - 98

in my view (continued from p. 100)
when minimum demand emerges as an
issue due to abundant rooftop solar?
The tools used to secure grid visibility,
analyze decisions, and manage data are
still in their infancy.
Although the topology of the Australian
system has unique characteristics, we
know from our colleagues in other jurisdictions
that the operational challenges
and new analytic requirements we are experiencing
are not unique. The transmission
owners and system operators around
the world recognize that to navigate
successfully to a low-carbon renewable
power system, the technical challenges
must be understood and addressed. I am
proud of the work AEMO and others in
the Australian power sector are doing to
tackle these issues and contribute to an
international understanding of efforts to
decarbonize the power system.
Along with increased technical complexities,
transitioning to a low-carbon
system is bringing new challenges to
public policy, the socioeconomic framework,
and business model conventions
that collectively define the power industry.
The business models designed for an
era when there was a clear difference between
supply and demand do not work as
well in a system that must accommodate
increasing consumer investments in solar
generation and storage. The grid's future
is being driven by the decisions that occur
across dining room tables and is no
longer the exclusive domain of boardrooms
and regulatory commissions.
In this issue, my colleagues discuss
how AEMO and others in Australia are
going about solving technical challenges.
We also touch on the reforms that are occurring
and how we must change our markets
and regulations to address the very
different energy future that we are creating.
After all, this is an essential service
that, with decarbonization, is even more
critical to the health of our economies.
I highlight what I believe are five
universal features of the transition to be
addressed, regardless of jurisdiction, if
the creation of a sector-coupled, lowcarbon
power system is to be successful:
1) The transition is a technologydriven,
socioeconomic change
98
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in the power system: Like parenting
and aging, this transition
is not for the fainthearted. The
power industry is characterized
by long-lived assets, powerful
incumbents, and well-honed regulatory
and market conventions.
It serves a critical public interest
for affordable and reliable electricity,
and, for all these reasons,
there is a strong incentive to take
things incrementally. The scope
and scale of this change mean
that tepid and small steps are no
longer pragmatic or feasible. We
need to be prepared to envision
a different future and take the
necessary steps to achieve it. We
must also acknowledge that the
rules and practices we are putting
in place support a transition.
They may be temporary, revised,
or replaced in the future.
2) Independent, proactive systemwide
planning with government
support will benefit consumers and
developers: I entered the power
industry in the United States in
the late 1980s when the system was
reluctantly transitioning from one
that was dominated by vertically
integrated utilities to one that
supported independent generation
and development. As a result, there
was a move to either transparent,
independent planning by utilities or
regional planning by independent
operators to level the playing field
among new generators. Where additional
transmission infrastructure
was required, this focused on connecting
discrete renewable developments.
In these circumstances,
traditional planning and regulatory
conventions work.
This is not the case for the type
of transition we are confronting
now. The national transmission
asset base will need to triple over
the next several decades to accommodate
the level of additional
renewable generation required to
replace retiring fossil resources.
We know that just building out
the transmission network is insufficient;
we need to identify the
complementary investments that
will be necessary for the system
to remain affordable, secure, and
reliable. We must also be mindful
of the social license issues associated
with land usage and economic
development.
The transition is about more
than the rapid investment by individuals
in distributed resources.
There is the expected growth of
electric transportation and the
electrification of other elements of
the economy. The green and blue
hydrogen economy will develop.
There is a need for greater resiliency
to address climate change
(bushfires and harsher
storms).
Together, it becomes clear that
the nature of system planning
involves broad socioeconomic
issues. Processes are needed to
integrate sound engineering and
government policy and support.
The process must be open, consultative,
and allow for innovation
as well as a close coordination
of transmission development and
the construction of supply.
Given the level of investment
required and the societal and
economic risk if we do not get it
right, we cannot just hope that the
system will work in the end: we
will need to make it so. To ensure
that
this happens in the NEM,
AEMO is expanding the planning
capabilities of its Integrated
System Plan to take into account all
of the potential system effects. The
aim is that, with the support of governments
and utilities, the necessary
network investments will be
in place before the coal retirements
and ahead of new generation.
In Western Australia, AEMO
is supporting the state government,
which is taking on a larger
decision-making role. We are
also working with governments
throughout the country to define
and support the development
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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2021

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