Essential System Services Reform: Australian Market Design for Renewable-Dominated Grids
Niraj Lal, Toby Price, Leon Kwek, Chris Wilson, Farhad Billimoria, Trent Morrow, Matt Garbutt, Dean Sharafi
Abstract
IN 1863, a single arc lamp on observatory Hill in Sydney, Australia, was lit to celebrate the marriage of Prince Albert of Wales and Princess Alexandra of Denmark. It was the first use of electricity anywhere in the country. It took 25 years until Australia established its first permanent 240-V electrical grid, in the small country town of Tamworth, New South Wales, in 1888. Two 18-kW, dc, coal-fired generators were supplied by the plentiful Gunnedah black coal basin nearby, and in the same year, on the other side of the continent, C.J. Otte supplied electricity to the Western Australian Government House with a small, 15-kW dynamo. By 1899, a full three-phase 240-V ac grid had been built on the east coast, establishing the foundation of the future power system across the country.