Leading the clean energy transition in Western Australia

MELODIE MICHEL, Reporter, Energy and Mines

Energy producer EDL owns and operates a global portfolio of power stations in Australia, North America and Europe, and since 2015, the company has made strides in sustainable distributed energy through its hybrid renewable developments. In Australia, EDL is involved with a number of mining companies and remote communities, assisting their carbon reduction efforts through the hybridization of energy sources. Most notably, the company owns and operates the Coober Pedy Hybrid Renewable Power Station, which provides electricity to the remote mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia; and the Agnew Hybrid Renewable Project in Western Australia (WA) for Gold Fields’ Agnew gold mine.

“The Agnew project is progressing well,” says EDL’s General Manager, Remote Energy, Geoff Hobley. “Last year we delivered stage 1: a gas and diesel power station and a solar farm, and we’re on track to deliver stage 2 by the middle of this year, which includes the batteries, five wind turbines and a microgrid control system.” EDL will complete installation of the five wind turbines, each with a diameter of 140 metres, by the end of February. When completed, this project will make this Gold Fields mine the first in Australia to be powered by wind-generated energy.

This past October, a joint venture formed by Woodside and EDL was chosen by Strandline Resources to provide a sustainable energy solution for its Coburn Mineral Sands project in WA. The power project will be developed under a build, own, operate model and will incorporate a 27MW trucked LNG and renewable energy solution over a 15-year term. The arrangement is contingent on the conclusion of a power purchase agreement, which is expected to be finalised in the coming months, subject to finance approval.

In his almost eight years at EDL, Hobley has seen miners’ interest in decarbonisation grow. This has accelerated most rapidly in recent months: “This shift is not just due to the reducing cost of renewable technologies but the growing desire of mining companies and regional energy retailers to decarbonize and to manage their energy costs.” According to him, the steps taken by BHP (a US$400mn climate investment program), Rio Tinto (a deal with China’s largest steel producer to reduce carbon emissions from the steelmaking industry) and Gold Fields’ efforts to champion hybrid renewable energy, amongst others, demonstrate the mining sector’s commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. “At an industry level, our conversations with mining and other remote customers are increasingly about decarbonizing their energy sources,” he says.

On top of this ongoing trend, the bushfire crisis that plagued most of Eastern Australia at the end of 2019 firmly placed climate change at the center of energy conversations. “The bushfire crisis has shone a media spotlight on climate change, and Australia’s strategic transition to renewable energy continues to be a regular feature in our discussions with customers and potential customers. Most of our remote customers are increasingly factoring in the need to improve their sustainability performance and looking to make corporate social responsibility commitments.” Hobley says.

Renewable penetration challenges

But while interest is there, and the technology is affordable, it is still rare to see hybrids with 50% or more renewable penetration.

According to Hobley, this is due to the intermittency of renewable sources of energy. “While renewable energy has many sustainability benefits, the key drawback is that solar and wind resources can be highly variable. As the percentage of a hybrid system’s renewable capacity increases, the impact of the renewable resources’ intermittency increases. This requires additional hardware and control systems to make sure the reliability of supply and power quality are maintained,” he says.

High penetration is challenging, but not unachievable: EDL’s Coober Pedy Hybrid Renewable Power Station provides the remote mining community with electricity that is generated on average at 75% renewable energy. To date, the longest continuous period the power station has operated on 100% renewables was 97 hours in December last year. And when completed, the Agnew Renewable Hybrid Project will provide the mine with more than 50% renewable energy over the long term.

“Hybrid technologies help bridge the gap between transitional fuel sources and renewable energy,” explains Hobley. “EDL has demonstrated that well-designed hybrid stations can effectively manage the reliability risk and facilitate much higher penetration of renewable energy sources. The reducing cost of batteries will also assist us to move to larger-scale high-penetration projects: in addition to storing and enabling the use of renewables for a longer period, batteries provide spinning reserve and assist with managing load steps to ensure smooth, reliable supply while reducing the task of thermal engines.”

The hydrogen promise

Besides its work delivering hybrid power stations to remote communities and mines —EDL is in ongoing discussions with a number of mining operators and hopes to make further announcements later this year — the company was recently awarded a grant from the WA government’s Renewable Hydrogen Fund for a study on the production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources.

“We’re really excited about this study: we hope to be the first energy producer to use renewable hydrogen to power a remote community or mining operation in Western Australia,” says Hobley. Under the study, which is expected to be completed in late 2020, EDL will investigate how the integration of hydrogen production with renewables can help achieve 100% renewable penetration at its thermal power stations that supply islanded grids in remote WA. The results will determine the feasibility of progressing with a demonstration hydrogen production project in 2021.

“Hydrogen is currently an expensive fuel to produce, store and transport. EDL intends to eliminate the transport challenge by producing hydrogen onsite in our existing power stations in remote WA. We aim to minimize production costs by utilizing the plentiful solar or wind-generated energy at our sites to extract hydrogen from water,” explains Hobley. “This is where EDL will leverage our expertise in hybrid renewable microgrids to identify the best technology configuration to produce reliable, low-cost, low-emissions electricity to run the energy-intensive extraction process.”

While the bushfire crisis is not expected to change government policies around climate change specifically, the Australian Prime Minister is set to launch consultations in March on a new technology roadmap in areas such as hydrogen, solar and batteries, transmissions and network, energy storage and carbon capture. Hydrogen in particular is the focus of much interest and investment in the country, as it shows promise not only to store renewable energy for power, but also as a zero-emissions transport fuel.

EDL is closely following government announcements about the roadmap, and contributing to the development of the hydrogen sector with the study, which will take place at a range of sites in WA. Still, Hobley reminds that while the production of cheap renewable hydrogen is one part of the equation, the success of these developments will also largely depend on the availability of equipment to use it. “These opportunities will depend on the ongoing progression to larger and lower-cost technology options,” he adds.