New local energy blueprint aims to head off power crisis

The Intelligent Grid Cluster (iGrid), a collaborative venture between the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship, the Australian Technology Network group of universities and the University of Queensland, will start the process of developing the Australian Distributed Energy Roadmap in Brisbane on Tuesday 7 April.

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 next year, 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," White said.

"Australian electricity networks are about to undertake their biggest ever investment in new infrastructure," Professor White said. "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," White said.

"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 at an upcoming forum, Distributed Energy: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Now, at Customs House in Brisbane on Tuesday 7 April.

The iGrid program is supported by the CSIRO Energy Transformed National Research Flagship and five participating universities: UTS, the University of Queensland, University of South Australia, Queensland University of Technology and Curtin University. The CSIRO Flagship Collaboration Fund has contributed over $3m to foster the iGrid cluster partnership.