New local energy blueprint aims to head off power crisis

The Intelligent Grid Cluster (iGrid) is a collaborative venture between the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship, the Australian Technology Network group of universities and the University of Queensland that has started the process of developing the Australian Distributed Energy Roadmap in Brisbane.

The roadmap will assess the potential for ‘intelligent’ distributed energy, including energy efficiency, load management, small-scale local power generation and smart meters; and identify the barriers to its implementation.

Due to be released in 2010, the roadmap will be a concise and practical plan to accelerate deployment of distributed energy across Australia. It will be developed through a series of forums around Australia.

Professor Stuart White, iGrid Leader and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, said Australia should follow the lead of the US where new electricity distribution technology has been included in the national stimulus package: “The key to early greenhouse abatement is through a mix of distributed generation, demand management and energy efficiency. Not only can this ensure a more robust and efficient electricity network, it will also be cheaper and more sustainable.

“Australian electricity networks are about to undertake their biggest ever investment in new infrastructure. Consumers face bigger bills as a result, which will only get bigger when carbon pollution reduction measures are introduced. It is crucial that we act now to maximise use of smaller scale, local energy options that simultaneously reduce emissions and costs.”

The International Energy Agency estimates that by adopting new energy-efficiency measures, constructing green energy infrastructure and taking steps to integrate cleaner energy into the power grids, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by almost 40% relative to the projected baseline emissions for 2030.

“The intelligent grid of tomorrow involves not just smarter metering, control and communication but also smarter pricing, smarter regulation and smarter decision making,” continued Professor White. “But we are not going to achieve this by simply working away in laboratories. We need intensive collaboration between the industry, policy makers, researchers and others. We hope that the Australian Distributed Energy Roadmap process will advance this cooperation.”

Industry stakeholders as well as policy makers and regulators have been invited to contribute to the development of the Distributed Energy Roadmap.