>the Tesla big battery responded four seconds ahead of the generator contracted at that time to provide FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services), the Gladstone coal generator in Queensland.
I find it curious that a coal plant would be contracted with keeping the frequency stable when both hydro-storage and gas power plants provide better response times than coal. Is it normal in Australia that coal plants do grid stabilisation?
Gas is tied up largely in export contracts, and the whole thing about Australia being both somewhat flat and dry means hydro basically doesn't exist (it exists only in the literally 1 place on the mainland continent we have any "significant" snowfall).
The biggest surprise to me was that a plant in Gladstone (Queensland) was contracted to prop up a plant in Victoria. These two places are 1375 miles apart. Then again, I guess the linky bits between the wires must be pretty high-speed, so the speed-of-light propagation of the grid conditions wouldn't take too much extra time.
I find it curious that a coal plant would be contracted with keeping the frequency stable when both hydro-storage and gas power plants provide better response times than coal. Is it normal in Australia that coal plants do grid stabilisation?