Australia. Pool pumps, airconditioners, batteries and other smart devices could become money spinners for households under a $50 million NSW government plan to create a "virtual battery" to shore up the power grid. Under the plan, participants would agree to feed excess electricity into the grid at certain peak demand times, such as during heatwaves, getting paid as much as $1000 over a three-year period for the service. Plugging into home storage and other smart devices could help the NSW government create a 'virtual battery' to assist the state's energy grid. The government will seek expressions of interest in the Smart Energy for Homes and Businesses program from Wednesday up until Christmas before deciding on the final outline of the plan. It expects to sign up as many as 40,000 participants willing to supply power for periods during five days a year, creating the equivalent of 200 megawatts of instantly available electricity. “Smart technologies play a critical role in maximising the potential of our energy system – allowing us to access and co-ordinate stored energy for when and where we need it most,” Don Harwin, Energy Minister, said. Devices likely to be eligible will need to be remotely controllable, as is already the case with many airconditioners and some pool pumps. Batteries, including those used by some electric vehicle manufacturers – but not Tesla – are also likely to be candidates. John Grimes, chief executive of the Smart Energy Council, welcomed the NSW plan as a positive for those considering adding home storage, such as for their solar panels. "This policy aligns the interests of families and the interests of the community and that is very smart," Mr Grimes said. "There is massive community interest in battery storage and this policy will be a significant boost to the solar and storage industry." It is understood the government is hoping to establish the business model for a potential expansion, particularly as more households add batteries to the solar PV systems. About one in six new PV systems going up on rooftops are already adding storage, a ratio expected to grow as battery prices fall. Funding for the three-year program, expected to begin next year, will come from the government's $222 million Climate Change Fund. https://www.smh.com.au/business/con...tteries-houses-state-nsw-20181113-p50fsy.html
Battery size limitations is the biggest problem and outback there is no density of population to make that model profitable. Mining companies generally use diesel power, but solar is becoming more predominant with battery prices dropping, but not altogether for heavy lifting as you can't generate enough wattage to operate a mining mill on solar alone. Some mine camps/accomodation are using it. What we do see here is more and more street lighting, and roadside emergency phone stations powered by solar. In South Australia they are building a solar power station, but granted, Australia is is not leading the pack. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_thermal_power_stations
It also just occurred to me... I guess huge solar farms would only work if the outback had a huge power grid like more densely populates countries/areas, or else it is simply not feasible to use batteries in place of direct-to-grid power feeding. Gonna' need a whole lotta' cabling!
The gummint here are mulling using solar to pump water back uphill into dams via solar, at Snowy Mountain.
Not as a significant percentage. With tens or hundreds of thousands of devices pumping current back into the grid, can you imagine the Mgmt nightmare that will be? I can imagine multiple devices partially or fully out of sync destroying each others' energy and simply heating up transmission wires ... technically the problem is solvable, but at what capital and economic cost and return? I wouldn't want to be that grid manager after the govt centrally plans it.
That would be gnarly! But happily, it's not that hard. At the gate of every storage device is logic that prevents outflow to a higher charge. ("Yayyy!") The *command* logic (the discretionary call) comes with outflow to a lesser charge -- is it a system call, or is it a downed line? At this point, a master command link has to be available, to prevent work on a local outage from having to deal with live wires. A final piece of logic requires that if there is no master command link, do NOT open the gate to outflows. So in practice, things are set up to prevent overcharging the lines, and to prevent outage/work disasters.
Interesting. It sounds like the technology difficulties might be easier to solve than the regulatory/utility politics side. LOL
This is a very good policy. A lot of energy is wasted especially in the summer season in the form of solar energy. This policy will help the people in finding a livelihood and will also help the government to solve the energy issues. I appreciate these efforts of the government.