Increasing grid resiliency in Australia

Monash University has received $499,744 in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to investigate oscillation issues in Australia’s national energy grid.

A growing challenge in light of Australia’s increasing uptake of renewable energy sources, oscillatory instability can be caused by high levels of wind and solar use. In today’s power system, oscillatory instability is most often a symptom of low system strength. In 2019–20, oscillatory instability was observed in the West Murray Region, leading to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) reducing the output of five solar farms while it worked through its understanding of the cause and potential solutions.

The $1.3 million Monash project will develop a tool to investigate the causes of oscillatory instability and identify potential solutions, with the aim of reducing barriers to the connection and operation of inverter-based resources.

“To manage the risk of instability in an increasingly inverter-based grid, it is necessary to build reliable and efficient tools that can identify root causes early. These tools should also be useful to explore the suitability of solutions for a grid increasingly dominated by renewable generation,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller.

“Researchers at Monash University are working on the best solutions for oscillations and we’re confident in the outcomes that could help in the ramp-up of new renewable energy generation and storage projects.”

Associate Professor Behrooz Bahrani, Director of Monash’s Grid Innovation Hub, said that enhancing the resilience and stability of the national energy grid is paramount as the country accelerates its transition to renewable energy.

“With the expertise of Monash University researchers and the support from ARENA, this groundbreaking project promises to address current oscillation challenges and pave the way for a robust, reliable and renewable future for our energy infrastructure,” Bahrani said.

“Our commitment to facilitating a seamless integration of renewables into our grid is unwavering, and we’re optimistic about the innovative solutions this collaboration will bring forth.”

ARENA has previously funded Monash University research into inverter designs that promote stable operation in weak grid conditions. The outcomes found in the 2020 study will be used for the current study to show how multiple inverter-based resources (IBRs) interact with one another across the National Electricity Market (NEM) and how oscillation issues can be resolved.

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