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AEMO Begins Cautious Lift of Australian Electricity Market Suspension

June 23, 2022

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on June 22 initiated the first step to lift a suspension of its National Electricity Market (NEM), citing a “clear improvement in market conditions.”

The measure comes more than a week since it indefinitely suspended spot markets in all regions of its NEM, given critical power generation supply shortfalls that it had said made it “impossible to continue” operations under national electricity rules. Suspension of the NEM marked a dramatic step for the AEMO, which serves as an independent system operator (ISO) that operates the competitive market serving New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania.

While fuel supplies remain tight, more than 4,000 MW of generation is back online after outages, AEMO said on Wednesday. That paves the way for the operator to initiate a staged approach to lifting the market suspension, said AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman.

“The first step is that at 4 a.m. [on June 23], we will allow the market to set the price again,” Westerman said.…

Dirty Electricity, but Not the Kind You Think

February 18, 2021

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When most people hear the term “dirty electricity,” they probably think of power generated from sources considered more-polluting, such as coal, natural gas, or other fossil fuels. However, Satic Inc., an electronics manufacturer and professional engineering firm based in Missoula, Montana, says electricity in homes and businesses is filled with “electrical pollution” that is not necessarily associated with dirty fuels. In fact, the company claims solar power is one of the main sources of dirty electricity.

“Dirty electricity specifically comes from three different main culprit places. Number one, it’s delivered to our panel. Number two, we make it with our electronics—our solar inverters, our LED lighting, our DC devices. And, the wiring in our home—maybe half a mile of high-quality copper wiring—acts as a super antenna. So, that’s how we get dirty electricity into our house. What defines it specifically is, it’s electricity that has distortion or interference, low power factor, etcetera, on it,” B.D.…

[VIDEO] POWER Insights—Bringing Electricity to Underserved Areas

July 8, 2020

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The post [VIDEO] POWER Insights—Bringing Electricity to Underserved Areas appeared first on POWER Magazine.

More than half of the population of Africa, or about 640 million people out of about 1.2 billion, does not have access to energy. It’s the lowest access rate for electricity worldwide.

Bringing power to those people is important work, being led by people such as Damien Simon, marketing and strategy director for Paris, France-based Nexans, a company that develops energy projects around the globe. Simon’s focus is on building power infrastructure in Africa, and the electrification of areas previously without access to energy.

Simon recently joined POWER associate editor Darrell Proctor for a conversation as part of the POWER Insights series, video interviews with important players in the power generation sector. He noted that in Africa, “not only do the power generation assets need to be considered, but so do the necessary transmission and distribution networks and revenue collection processes,” because it’s important that the energy generated can be paid for.…