| Title | Bringing large scale geothermal electricity to the National Grid |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tom R. Butler, Sharon Tissai-Krishna, Anthony B. Morton |
| Year | 2009 |
| Conference | Australian Geothermal Energy Conference |
| Keywords | Geothermal Electricity Generation, HVAC, HVDC, National Grid |
| Abstract | The Australian Greenhouse Accounts report that the Australian stationary energy sector is currently responsible for 50% of the country’s total CO2-e emissions. In order to mitigate this contribution to reach emissions reductions targets a significant portion of Australia’s electricity generation is expected to be sourced by renewable energy sources in the near future. Although currently developed as a smaller contribution to electricity generation, recent developments in the area of Hot Rock Geothermal Energy have poised geothermal electricity generation for large scale developments. In Australia one of the major impediments faced by the development of large scale geothermal electricity generation is the ability to transfer large quantities of electrical energy from accessible geothermal resources to the ‘local’ electricity grid. This abstract outlines the potential issues of connecting large scale remote geothermal electricity generators to the ‘local’ electricity grid in the context of the National Electricity Market (NEM). These are discussed from the point of view of a hypothetical case study presenting large scale generation in the Cooper Basin on the border of South Australia and Queensland. |