Australia’s electricity grid must be built to handle the worst moments, not averages.
This week, Australia’s National Energy Market (NEM) has experienced a prolonged wind drought, which, alongside low solar generation due to winter, has made the grid overly reliant on coal and gas.
As I began writing this article at 9.50 am on Wednesday, only 26% of the NEM’s power generation is coming from solar (21%) and wind (5%), while coal (54%) and gas (9%) are carrying the load:
