Antinuclear

The smart grid and renewable energy are on their way to Australia

“The current electricity system is designed for electricity to flow in one direction, but as we put more renewable energy into the system, more and more electricity will flow in the other direction

 with the level of control and intelligence provided by the smart grid, electric car batteries could store power while parked helping balance supply and demand across the network.

Welcome to the smart grid, ABC 1 May 12,  JOHN PICKRELL  “….Welcome to the world of the smart home and its sister, the smart grid.

Already across Victoria, smart meters are being fitted that tell the grid how much power you’re using, and charge a different rate at peak and off-peak times of day. Last year in the Sydney suburb of Newington, a family of human guinea pigs lived in a smart home created by electricity provider Ausgrid and Sydney Water. This house had a HAN — or energy dashboard — and tested energy- and water-saving technologies, as well as generating its own power from solar cells and a ceramic fuel cell. In this way, the family generated most of their power, some of which they stored in batteries in both the house and their Mitsubishi i-MieV electric car. (Find out more about the smart home here and here)

“In 20 years time we will all have access to much more information about how we use our electricity. The smart grid won’t require us to change our lifestyle; instead we will have automated devices that help us manage our consumption,” says Dr Glenn Platt who heads up the CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship in Newcastle, NSW.

“One problem for electricity networks at the moment is the problem of peak demand: where many devices and homes all use electricity at the same time… we want to be able to spread out the times when devices operate to better regulate the total electricity consumption.”

Currently, a considerable 10 per cent of investment in infrastructure is spent to handle electricity usage peaks that occur just one per cent of the time. Electricity generated at peak hours is also expensive. The idea behind the smart grid is to link existing electrical infrastructure up with communication and information technology to make it more responsive and better able to regulate itself……..

Platt says key benefits of the smart grid are that it’ll be more efficient and easier to control, that electricity should theoretically be cheaper and that it’ll be possible to include much more renewable energy in the mix. “The current electricity system is designed for electricity to flow in one direction, but as we put more renewable energy into the system, more and more electricity will flow in the other direction. With the old system, this is going to be difficult to deal with,” he says. “Renewable energy, particularly solar, is intermittent, and electricity companies are not used to having sources of power that turn on and off. But a smart grid can have devices to cope with this.”

For example, with the level of control and intelligence provided by the smart grid, electric car batteries could store power while parked helping balance supply and demand across the network.

But the reach of the smart grid won’t end with your car. Via your very own Hannah, or energy dashboard — smart-chip-enabled devices will decide when to switch on or off depending on peak demand. There’s great scope for all sorts of appliances to moderate energy use, says Eckermann. “In many cases — dishwashers and washing machines — it doesn’t matter to the end user whether the appliance races through its cycle and finishes at the earliest possible time, or delays its operation in order to avoid peak times.”

With devices such as air conditioners and heaters you might be willing to tolerate a several degree change in the thermostat if it saved you money, he says. Other appliances, such as pool pumps and freezer compressors, need to run periodically, but it doesn’t really matter when. “All in all, there’s great scope to shed some demand, and shift other demand to moderate peaks,” he says……

“The existing electricity network is a long way behind the technology of modern communications systems,” says Platt. But these many innovations will bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/05/01/3482274.htm

May 2, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy