We find increasing wind power penetration decreases carbon dioxide emissions but retail prices fail to reflect the decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. The sensitivity analysis uses simulations from the ‘Australian National Electricity Market (ANEM) model version 1.10’ (Wild et al. We also use sensitivity analysis to evaluate the effect on carbon dioxide emissions of growth in electricity demand over the projections years 2014 to 2015 and weather over the years 2010 to 2012.
The five levels of wind penetration span Scenarios A to E where Scenario A represents ‘no wind’ and Scenario E includes all the existing and planned wind power sufficient to meet Australia’s 2020 41TWh Large Renewable Energy Target (LRET). We use a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the effect of five different levels of wind penetration on carbon dioxide emissions. The report findings will help develop a coherent government policy to phase in renewable energy in a cost effective manner. This report answers urgent questions concerning the capability of the existing transmission grid to cope with significant increases in wind power and aid emissions reductions. This report investigates the effect of increasing the number of wind turbine generators on carbon dioxide emission in the Australian National Electricity Market’s (NEM) existing transmission grid from 2014 to 2025.
