Dr. Phil Hemmingway:

What are hybrid projects? It is about having more than one generation technology behind a single connection point. If they can be built in greater numbers and more locations, potentially using the same connection point, that means a reduced need for costly upgrades to the grid. That leads to better use of existing wires. We are working hard to remove some of the barriers and enable more hybrid projects to come onto the system. We have consulted the industry and prioritised three areas that we are trying to address.

The first is called an installed capacity cap. A generator is allowed to install up to 120% of its maximum export capacity but for long durations wind or solar farms, for example, will not be operating at their full capacity. We are asking if we can remove that cap and allow wind and solar farms etc. to bring in hybrid technologies at a higher number of megawatts installed. We have consulted on this and we are expecting to publish a decision by the end of this year.

The second thing we are prioritising is the sharing of maximum export capacity. The current market rules state that market registered capacity has to equal maximum export capacity. That prevents hybrid colocated units from registering separately and participating in the market. We want to find a way to change that which could enable more hybrids and we plan to consult on that shortly.

The third priority we are addressing is around multiple legal entities. Legislation does not currently allow for multiple legal entities to be behind a meter point. In other words, if a wind farm and a solar farm want to develop behind the same meter point they must be the same legal entity. We are taking legal advice on understanding what legislative change might be required to enable that to happen.