Smart Grid, Smart City
Australia’s first commercial-scale smart grid will be based in Newcastle, New South Wales, in a demonstration project that will lead to Australia-wide advances in energy management. The Australian Government announced that a consortium led by EnergyAustralia is the preferred applicant under the Australian Government’s National Energy Efficiency Initiative - Smart Grid, Smart City.
The Australian Government has committed up to $100 million to develop the Smart Grid, Smart City demonstration project in partnership with the energy sector. This initiative will gather robust information about the costs and benefits of smart grids to inform future decisions by government, electricity providers, technology suppliers and consumers across Australia.
A smart grid is a modernised electricity grid that efficiently manages electricity supply and demand. Our current electricity system is like an old car. It works well but isn’t very efficient and is sometimes unreliable. Like a modern car, a smart grid makes the electricity system work smarter and better; it conducts regular checks to see what needs attention and reduces running costs in the long term; and it includes active automated systems that can respond to changing conditions and emergency situations.
A smart grid works by combining advanced communication, sensing and metering infrastructure with the existing electricity network. Smart grids have enormous potential to improve the efficiency of our electricity sector and transform the way we use energy in our homes and businesses.
A smart grid can improve the reliability of electricity services for consumers by identifying and resolving faults on the electricity grid, better managing voltage and identifying infrastructure that requires maintenance. Smart grids can also help consumers manage their individual electricity consumption and enable the use of energy efficient 'smart appliances' that can be programmed to run on off-peak power.
The initiative is being delivered by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, in close consultation with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, and the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.
The Newcastle project
This initiative demonstrates Australia's position at the forefront of global efforts to use energy more efficiently, ensure network reliability and combat climate change.
The Smart Grid, Smart City demonstration project will deploy a live, integrated, smart grid of commercial size and scope in the Newcastle area, with parts of the trial also conducted in Newington, Sydney’s CBD, Ku-ring-gai and Scone. The location of Smart Grid, Smart City will provide a reasonable representation of the wider grid to produce credible results that can inform broader industry-led adoption of smart grids in Australia. The demonstration area includes urban, suburban, and rural areas and contains diverse network, geographic, climatic and customer characteristics.
The Smart Grid, Smart City project will demonstrate a range of smart grid technologies and applications. Customer applications such as in-home displays will allow those involved in the demonstration project to more easily monitor real time electricity usage. Program participants can then manage and program intelligent appliances, like air conditioners or heaters, to run on off-peak power. Other applications such as fault detection, isolation and restoration can sense faults on the grid and will look at reducing the length of time or size of outages and allow a degree of ‘self-healing’ through re-routing of supply.
Smart Grid, Smart City will also trial distributed storage which can provide extra electricity to the power supply during peak periods. Substation and feeder monitoring provides information that can help manage outages, identify infrastructure that requires maintenance and can help the electricity company work out the best time to do it. In this way, smart grids can help to reduce the maintenance costs that are passed on to consumers. Other applications such as active voltage support and power factor correction can manage voltage for a more efficient system.
Wide Area Measurement provides real time monitoring of high-voltage transmission and distribution lines. Electric vehicle support includes central systems to make sure large power loads, which are created when many electric cars are charging at the same time, is managed. Smart Grid, Smart City will also look at how electricity from renewable and distributed energy sources, such as wind and solar generation, can be integrated more effectively into the existing electricity network.
Smart Grid, Smart City will provide extensive data about the potential benefits of smart grid appliances, network improvements and technological efficiencies while offering details and information about what energy use and behavioural changes happen when people have more information and knowledge about their energy consumption. It is anticipated that interim data and results will be made available publicly over the course of the project to share lessons with other electricity networks that are developing smart grids, and to assist industry with the development of smart grid technologies
Contact us
Queries regarding Smart Grid, Smart City can be sent to smartgrid@climatechange.gov.au