The Queensland Government is set to introduce its “ripple control” inverter emergency backstop mechanism, but the Clean Energy Council says there are other proven methods that should be considered.
With the rise in popularity of rooftop solar across Australia, there are times when electricity networks are overwhelmed due to excessive solar energy being exported and not enough being used. These rare occasions are usually brief, but can destabilise the network.
As more homes connect to solar energy, these power management issues will grow exponentially, with increasing measures being required to deal with them.
The Queensland Government is responding to these network demands by soon introducing its emergency backstop mechanism, a controversial safeguard that will give power companies Ergon Energy and Energex the capacity to remotely switch off some solar power and battery systems across the state for short periods during emergency situations.
This proposed mechanism is known as “ripple control”, and all new inverter installations above 10kVA (10kW) across Queensland will need to be fitted with a generation signalling device (GSD) that will allow them to be switched off to avoid blackouts when the need arises.
The new requirement will not apply to existing inverter systems, with some exceptions including the addition of new inverters that will push the total onsite capacity above 10kW.
However, the Clean Energy Council is opposed to the new Queensland mandate, saying it is out of step with other Australian states such as South Australia and Western Australia that have introduced diverse emergency backstop mechanisms such as dynamic operating envelopes, remote verification of inverter settings and responses to market signals.
The Clean Energy Council says the ripple control method is little more than an on-off switch, and proposes the following alternatives as outlined in its submission to the “Energy Queensland Consultation Paper: Enabling an Emergency Backstop Mechanism”:
- Allow the use of interoperability and other demonstrated effective solutions as an alternative to ripple control.
- Allow a market-based approach rather than relying on mandatory external control.
- Activate market-based responses (for which customers are paid) prior to mandatory, regulated responses (for which customers are not paid).
- Allow zero export limitation as an alternative to switching off customers’ equipment.
- If the proposal for mandatory ripple control proceeds, limit it to solar inverters and do not apply it to the battery inverter.
- Exempt customers on a static zero-export limitation from the requirement for mandatory ripple control.
