Alternative Energy Development on North Stradbroke Island

摘要

Unimin's Sustainability Manager - Mineral Sands saw on 29th July 2010 the potential for wind power in the eastern section of the Ibis mine area while exploring for an outcome of an alternative energy project that is capable of providing sustainable power solutions for post mining on North Stradbroke Island (NSI), east of Brisbane. Compare this with Flinders Island, situated mid-Bass Strait and exposed to Roaring 40s, having one of the best wind regimes in the world but solar irradiation is low during winter. The overarching development concept is a precinct solution at Edge Of Grid and electricity distribution utility has confirmed that NSI qualifies as such irrespective of proximity to Brisbane (population 2,146,577 in 2011). North Stradbroke Island is adjacent to the Gold Coast boasting 300 sunny days a year yet where the wind regime is rarely Roaring 40s strength. Resort occupancies on NSI are highly seasonal so behind-the-meter energy efficiency improvements and solar PV/energy storage installation is restricted to "below firm load" in the current regulatory environment. A recent regulatory study by an electricity distribution utility at external examples of Edge Of Grid shows there is a local community level benefit for meeting the firm load of a community before Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) actually needs to be considered, that is no export from zone transformers. But integration of many energy storage and renewable generation units into a distribution network substation at NSI possibly will have significant implications for means of peak demand management, the coordination 110/11kV Tap Changers, effective fault level for safe protection operation and commissioning tests of the coordinated system, because the required control system differs radically from previous schemes (shedding hot water loads, etc.). Distribution Zone Substation refurbishment project and a project to proactively solve Emerging Distribution Network Limitations is an archetypal capital deferral for electricity distribution utilities. These two projects de-constrain and de-risk the distribution network for major energy investment streams on the other side of distribution network connection points. The latter of these projects requires an Integrated Volt/VAR Control (VVC) Decentralized with Distributed Power System Auto-Control solution. A Circuit Reconfiguration Controller associated with VVC control area is needed for rapid fault location, isolation and supply restoration scenario and its implementation using IEC 61499 function blocks. One major investment stream is MW class solar PV facilities that may be located in areas that fit in with a very large protected area (80% of NSI) to become National Park by 2027 and could generate enough electricity to power nearly 900 homes on the Island. These developments are for Independent Power Producers (IPP) interested in the grid-connected supply of electricity generated by renewable energy under a long-term PPA. Thus, distribution network constraints on the corridor back to transmission substation may possibly lead to a runback scheme, thereby potentially increasing dimensions of technical issues. This paper studies potential technical issues associated with the integration of a multi-renewable Ethernet-based sustainable energy system on the consumer-side and within a conventional distribution network that has traditional distribution network constraints.