Page 12 - AsiaElec Week 44

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
first nine months of the year reaching more 60mn tonnes, total purchases this year could exceed 80mn tonnes, said Richard Lu, senior analyst at commodities intelligence firm CRU.
“That’s too high, compared with last year’s imports of around 65mn tonnes,” he said. “It, thus, makes sense for the government to make its import policy stricter.”
China’s overall coal imports, including thermal coal, during January-September reached 250.57mn tonnes, surging 9.5% from the same period last year.
The country is on track to boost imports of the fuel by more than 10% this year, say traders and analysts, countering expectations that Beijing would cap shipments at the same level as in 2018.
Lu said he had not yet heard of, or seen, any official confirmation of the supposed import curbs, so it remained unclear how the policy was to be implemented.
China previously curbed coal imports to support domestic miners by tightening customs clearances.
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
AGL flicks switch on SA gas power in time for summer
AGL Energy chief executive Brett Redman says a A$295mn fast-start gas-fired power generator in South Australia that has been brought online just in time for summer peak demand should ultimately help in cutting power prices.
The Barker Inlet generator on Torrens Island about 25 kilometres from the Adelaide CBD is the first addition of on-demand generating capacity in the National Electricity Market for seven years, the Australian Financial Review reported.
“New supply should ultimately put more downward pressure on price,’’ Mr Redman said at the site on a visit where he was accompanied by Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor.
“This is about getting the supply into the market that the market needs,’’ Mr Redman said.
Redman said the Barker Inlet generator’s ability to ramp up from cold to full capacity in five minutes was just what was required to be able to rapidly respond to changes
in renewable energy supply and demand, particularly wind generation in South Australia.
He predicted the new plant would be in use on most days. It is already producing some power as it goes through its initial test runs.
“I think given the nature of the South Australian market, it’s going to operate most days,’’ Mr Redman said. “The reason for that is it complements really well all the wind power in this market’’.
The addition of the 210MW generator
is expected to beef up security of electricity supply in the fragile South Australian market, which is largely reliant on weather-dependent renewables and imports from other states to meet demand.
Taylor said while it was a ‘’great day’’ for the South Australian energy market, it was also important on a national basis for east coast consumers in the wake of record investment in renewable energy.
“But to complement that, we need supply that is reliable and affordable from generators like the one we’re standing in front of today,’’ Taylor said.
“That is absolutely essential to ensure that we’ve got that affordable, reliable power on the worst days.”
South Australian Energy Minister Dan
van Holst Pellekaan, who also attended the opening, said the Barker Inlet plant would add about 10% to the state’s generating capacity and brought extra stability by working in harmony with the up and down swings in generation from renewables projects, filling the gaps.
SOLAR
Vietnam outpaces
Indonesia in solar energy
growth
Attractive regulations have pushed an eightfold increase in solar energy adoption in Vietnam in the past two years, leaving Indonesia in the dust, even though the latter issued similar regulations six months earlier.
While Indonesia’s installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity declined by 37 percent between 2017 and 2018, Vietnam’s capacity skyrocketed by 803 percent in the same period, according to BP’s latest annual Statistical Review of World Energy.
Solar analyst Rishab Shrestha, a researcher with energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said the key to Vietnam’s success was its Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) programme, which was introduced by its Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in 2017.
The programme, stipulated under MoIT Decision No. 11/2017, promised investors that solar-generated electricity would be bought at 9.35 US cents per kWh.
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Week 44 05•November•2019