The Adelaide Graduate Research School (AGRS) and Australian Energy Market Operator are partnering to create 3 remote internship opportunities for University of Adelaide PhD students, to contribute to various projects. 

Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) manages the electricity and gas systems and markets across Australia, helping to ensure Australians have access to affordable, secure and reliable energy.

The organisation is currently seeking PhD students to undertake the following research projects:

• Project 1 – Primary Frequency Response: There is an open rule change relating to primary frequency response incentive arrangements with the national electricity market (NEM). Currently cost recovery for regulation frequency services is based on the causer pays process, which allocates the cost of sourcing regulation services to generators/loads based on historical performance. This is single sided as only debits incurred. The rule change is proposing that in addition to recovery for regulation FCAS, a second market for beneficial behaviour is to be implemented to provide further financial incentives for generators to provide primary frequency response. This introduces a secondary side where in addition to debits, credits can be obtained.

The research performed under this internship by an Electrical/Power Engineering or Computer Science PhD student will relate to this reform, specifically investigation of potential options for implementation. This will include prototyping and testing of various implementation options, analysis and documentation of results.

• Project 2 - Future Power System Modelling: As part of AEMO’s annual General Power System Risk review AEMO must model the power system at a 5 year ahead time horizon. Modelling at this time horizon while accounting accurately for power system dynamics in PSSE such that non-credible contingency event impacts can be assessed presents many challenges including:
  • Redispatch of network to reflect future forecast of demand and generation
  • Modelling of future network augmentations such as project energy connect, Humelink, Marinus Link ETC
  • Lack of available accurate generator and reinforcement models
  • Protection and emergency control scheme modelling challenges.

The research performed under this internship by an Electrical/Power Engineering PhD student would support AEMO with assessing key non-credible contingency risks in future scenarios and could include:

• • Supporting complex modelling activities
  • Assessment of the power system impact on non-credible contingency events and possible mitigations
  • Assessment of “other” risks that cannot be explicitly studied in PSSE or PSCAD but still present significant risks to the power system

• Project 3 – Regional Very Fast FCAS: The Very Fast FCAS market will commence on 09 October 2023 and there is an increasing amount of battery capacity being installed in the NEM. The batteries providing this service (and other FCAS services) can respond extremely quickly to frequency events and adjust their output accordingly, however, this can have implications for power system security:
  • If all FCAS services are procured from one source/region these could become unavailable
  • FCAS response could cause overloading of interconnectors between regions (example majority of FCAS dispatched in QLD, QNI becoming overloaded after a generation loss in Victoria and subsequent FCAS provider response in QLD).
  • If parts of the NEM are islanded due to non-credible contingencies, they may have no FCAS services available within their region.

Given the above, AEMO has an outstanding incident report recommendation to investigate regional FCAS further once the very fast FCAS market commences.

This research performed under this internship by an Electrical/Power Engineering PhD student will help AEMO make informed decisions about whether to pursue regional FCAS requirements or to introduce control system limits on very fast FCAS providers (and in what format). This will also aid AEMO with closure of this outstanding recommendation. The research could include:

• • Modelling of the power system (including frequency response of generators and UFLS)
  • Studying various credible and non-credible power system faults and their impact on interconnector flows, power system frequency and generator responses.
  • Introducing regional FCAS requirements for very fast FCAS and perhaps other FCAS markets and analysing their impact
  • Documenting benefits and consequences of any proposed changes

The successful candidates will undertake a minimum of 60 FTE business days of research and development with the organisation. The AGRS will support eligible students with a research internship scholarship (for 60 business days at the standard RTP rate). 

The selected applicant, their supervisor, and the industry focal contact person or internship supervisor will have the opportunity to discuss the nature of research and development activities and internship arrangements in greater detail post-selection.

Eligibility:  The PhD student must be:  

• within the first 18 months of their candidature,  
• willing to undertake the research internship for a minimum duration of 60 FTE business days,  
• making satisfactory progress, and  
• undertaking research in an area aligned with the proposed research internship project  

More information about University of Adelaide's Research Internships is available here.

Application Process:  To apply, please email the following documents to hdr_internships@adelaide.edu.au (HDR Internships Team) with the subject line – AEMO Internships:  

• Resume
• Cover Letter (of not more than 2 pages) outlining your interest in the internship and describing how your research area aligns with the proposed field of research internship.  

Please note that applications will be considered on a rolling basis and the advertisement may be closed earlier if a suitable applicant is shortlisted for a particular project prior to the listed closing date. Furthermore, if shortlisted, a meeting is likely to be organised between the student, their supervisor and the organisation's focal contact person within a week of shortlisting. Students may consider discussing their internship plans with their Principal Supervisor in anticipation of that.