AEMO calls for urgent investment to boost power grid amid coal exit

The news: The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has called for an urgent boost to investment in transmission lines and renewable energy to maintain the reliability of the country’s electricity grid as coal power is phased out.

The numbers: In its latest roadmap for the energy transition, AEMO has called for: the expansion of transmission lines to double to 5000km; a tripling of renewable generation; and a doubling of dispatchable storage, hydro and gas-powered generation — in the next 10 years.

The context: The urgent need for a boost to investment in the electricity grid comes as AEMO predicted that coal will completely exit the energy market by 2038, five years earlier than it previously estimated in 2022. It now expects coal generation to fall to about half of its current levels by the end of the decade. To replace this, 4 to 6 gigawatts of renewable energy needs to be added to the market each year through to 2030, AEMO said, backed by substantially more battery and other firming capacity such as pumped hydro, and new transmission lines built to deliver this power to consumers. Failure to invest well ahead of when infrastructure is needed poses a major risk to the stability of the nation’s power systems, it warned.