Energy Management Systems

With the transformation of Australia’s power system accelerating, the Australian Energy Market Commission has unveiled a raft of reforms to improve system strength in the national grid, predicting the changes will smooth the way for new energy resources including large-solar PV and batteries to connect to the grid.

Converting all home appliances and cars to run on electricity could save Australian households $40 billion a year by 2028, according to a new report from thinktank Rewiring Australia, the work of Australian-American entrepreneur Saul Griffith.

The project includes a solar park coupled with what HDF Energy claims is the “largest green hydrogen storage of intermittent electricity sources” at 128 MWh. Importantly, the company also simultaneously announced expansion plans into Australia, saying its hydrogen technology will soon be available here, adding that it has “projects already in development for Australia”.

New South Wales households and businesses will soon be incentivised to install technologies and appliances which can operate outside peak demand times as part of a scheme the state government’s claims could save consumers $1.2 billion on electricity bills by 2040.

Power and water are a classic utility couple. SA Water has switched up the relationship with another solar plant energised in its massive solar rollout that is set to save on both costs and carbon.

The Clean Energy Regulator has issued its second Quarterly Carbon Market Report for the year. Despite Covid and justified investor caution on big renewable projects, indicators from small- and large-scale energy certificate accounting show steady growth.

Since July last year, SA Power Networks has been refining the technology and stakeholder engagement mechanisms that will enable dynamic solar exports to the grid, potentially ending an era of severe export limits on new customers in rooftop-solar-rich parts of the South Australian network and in other jurisdictions.

Electric vehicles could autonomously transport electrons between where they’re generated and where they’re needed based on algorithms and smart software, predicts JET Charge CEO Tim Washington. Such a future, he admits, is “pretty sci-fi” and still a while off.

Put solar in your hot water tank! Off-peak electricity rates are fast becoming an unhelpful price signal for rooftop solar owners, who benefit by self consuming their excess solar ahead of drawing electricity from the grid at any time of day.

AUSTRALIA’S largest planned Renewable Energy Zone has been ‘swamped’ by investors with the New South Wales government revealing that more than 80 new solar, wind and energy storage projects, totalling a massive 34 GW, had been proposed for the New England region.