Pumped-hydro in Bendigo: Room for wider reform?

Abstract

As the world adjusts to a rapidly changing climate, interest in renewable energy technologies has increased. One disadvantage of renewables is that they’re only intermittently reliable; when the sun doesn’t shine, or the wind stops blowing the energy generation capacity of these infrastructures tapers off. In light of these changes there has been renewed interest in the creation of Pumped Hydro-Electricity Storage (‘PHES’), which acts as a ‘battery’ storing excess electricity generated when consumption of energy is at its lowest. In addition new technologies allow for legacy infrastructures, that would otherwise be a liability for the community, to now be used in a productive way for projects like PHES. Although there are many exciting opportunities the Bendigo PHES project presents, there is a dearth of regulatory issues for a small-medium scale project like this. This paper will explore the way in which such a project would fit within the national electricity market, as well as the limitations and barriers to implementation it might face before making some brief recommendations on changes that would benefit other such schemes in the future.