Australia’s future of Smart Grids and Smart Cities

Australia is starting to get an exciting reputation overseas as an emerging solar powerhouse nation, and with our already close investment ties with another leading nation in China, plus the expected funding to be generated from the tax on carbon, we are well placed to leverage our new position fully.

It would be hard not to be aware of the huge increase in home solar panel installations in the last couple of years, but you may not know that large scale solar also contributed strongly to the nearly 500% increase in solar PV in 2010. This was driven by Government initiatives such as the Solar Cities program, solar credit schemes and feed-in tariffs, together with significant PV price drops worldwide, and a favorable exchange rate.

Something still in the planning stages that will potentially have a huge impact on the way we life in the near future is the Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency's' Smart Grid Smart City Program;

What is the Smart Grid, Smart City project?


• Smart Grid, Smart City is a $100 million energy efficiency initiative designed to encourage the development of an innovative smart grid network in Australia.


• It will demonstrate an electricity system of the future, which uses information and communications to improve the efficiency of power production, delivery and use.


What is a smart grid?


• Smart grids combine advanced telecommunications and information technology applications with 'smart' appliances in the home to enhance the energy efficiency of the electricity power grid, while helping householders save on their energy bills.


Why do we need a Smart Grid, Smart City project?


• Our national electricity system is like an old car. It works, but could be more efficient, and is sometimes unreliable. Like a modern car, a smart grid conducts regular checks to make the electricity system work smarter and better, reducing running costs in the long term and responding to changing conditions and emergency situations.


• About 10 per cent of the electricity generated at the power station can be lost on the way to the home. Any electricity that is not used efficiently wastes our natural resources and money. It also increases Australia's greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to climate change.


• If smart grid applications are adopted around Australia they could deliver a reduction of 3.5 megatonnes of carbon emissions per annum

The Smart Grid Australia Conference and AGM was held in Sydney on the 2nd & 3rd August 2011, and hosted some exciting speakers from around the world gathering together to discuss the progress in deployment of smart energy solutions world wide. See www.smartgridaustralia.com.au

While many countries, including Australia, have embarked on pilots or commenced deployment in Smart Metering, Smart Grids, or Smart Cities, few have reached a scale where hypothesis and theory's can actually be validated in the real world.
Malta in Europe and Texas in USA are two examples where the progress in putting Smart Energy solutions into action has reached a significant enough scale that can provide valuable research data for future planning……..hopefully Australia won't be too far behind!