About Smart Grids - 4 November 2010
The smart meter is a significant building block of a smart grid. The emergence of the smart grid is driving the most dramatic changes in the utility industry in Australia & New Zealand and the transition to a new energy grid is not only necessary but also inevitable given the aging infrastructure, growing energy demands, rising consumer expectations, increasing environmental issues and new complexities such as variable tariffs and pricing, plug-in electric vehicles and integration of renewable energy onto the grid.
In Australia, preparations of the country’s first smart grid project are making progress and over the next three years lessons from various smart grid projects will be learned to guarantee a successful national smart grid roll out. Victoria took the leadership with smart meters and building on this experience is now working on the next steps preparing for the smart grids rollout.
The government is focusing on aligning environmental policies and energy policies as well as sharpening the electricity regulations. In Canberra, bidding has opened for Australia’s $100 million Smart Grid, Smart city initiative (also known as the National Energy Efficiency initiative – NEEI) which will deploy the country’s first commercial scale smart grid. The aim of the project is to launch 9,500 homes to a smart grid during the period 2010 – 2013. This project will then become the blueprint for the national rollout.
New Zealand’s Parliament’s Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright recently indicated that a smart electricity grid was just as important as modern infrastructure like roads and broadbands in 21st century New Zealand. A smart grid would allow the use of digital technology to upgrade the current system giving much finer control of the electricity supply.
The smart grid not only results in the need for a radically new physical infrastructure, but also changes almost every utility business process and even entire business models. In addition, as AMI and Smart Grids Evolve, engaging the customers is the key in achieving the utilities’ operational and energy efficiency goals. Many utilities in Australia and New Zealand are beginning to actively engage their customers and are seeing some positive results with supported by the advanced solutions that are available nowadays to achieve this.
Smart Grids will be the perfect platform for utilities who are looking for timely tools and guidelines to implement their smart grid strategies in the most efficient and successful way.
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