08 ENGINE ROOM SPRING EDITION WHYMICROGRID TECHNOLOGYCOULD FUELTHEFUTUREOF AUSTRALIA’SENERGY NETWORKS Renewable energy is the cheapest new power generation that can be built today and is rapidly dropping in price well below that of traditional fossil fuels – large-scale solar now costs almost half of what it did a few years ago1 . Ron Hall, Hybrid Microgrid Segment Manager Coupled with rapid advances in energy storage technology (electricity itself cannot be stored) and those costs also dropping relative to the price of fuel; attention is now moving towards microgrid technology that includes renewable energy sources as a possible alternative to complement Australia’s vast electricity network infrastructure. Accounting for around 80 per cent of Australia’s electricity consumption, the National Electricity Market (NEM) is the longest geographically connected power system in the world2 . Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel recently handed down his review into its future security including the recommendation to mandate energy retailers to provide a certain amount of their electricity from low-emissions generators – something that microgrid applications support. In fact, integrating renewable power with smart energy storage and conventional diesel or gas-fuelled power generation is a welcome innovation for ensuring power security and there are plenty of other benefits too.