The Renewable Integration Study (RIS) is the first stage of a multi-year plan to maintain system security in a future National Electricity Market (NEM) with a high share of renewable resources. AEMO’s findings and recommendations in this report reflect both its day-to-day experience operating the NEM power system, and the results of extensive RIS modelling and analysis.

This Stage 1 RIS report takes the ISP’s projections as given and investigates in detail the challenges in the short term, to 2025, of maintaining power system security while operating this resource mix at very high instantaneous penetrations of wind and solar generation. It recommends actions and reforms needed to keep operating the NEM securely, now and as the power system transitions. AEMO looks forward to engaging with stakeholders to refine and progress the recommended actions, including assessing the potential roles of both existing and emerging technologies.

With this report, AEMO aims to provide foundational engineering perspectives for the ISP, Energy Security Board (ESB), industry, market institutions, and policy-makers. The RIS’s technical perspectives will ideally inform future investments, regulations, and market designs to securely operate the NEM power system with very high instantaneous penetrations of renewables.