Australian Decentralised Energy Roadmap

 The Roadmap Launch 


The final Intelligent Grid Stakeholder Forum was held in Sydney on 15 December 2011. 

Update, 20 March 2013 The second Australian Summer Study tackled Smarter Energy Market Reform from 27 February - 1 March 2013.  Summer Study 2013 videos, photos and international events are now available.

Update, 16 January 2013 Some of the world’s leading energy thinkers to visit Sydney for the second Australian Summer Study - to tackle Smarter Energy Market Reform from 27 February - 1 March 2013 .

You can download a copy of the  Australian Decentralised Energy Roadmap which was launched 15 December 2011 by the Honourable Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources and Energy; Minister for Tourism.  The launch of the report developed by the University of Technology, Sydney was a landmark event.  

The Roadmap is intended to provide a concise and practical blueprint for accelerating the deployment of distributed energy in the form of energy efficiency, load management, distributed generation and smart metering in Australia. 

Update, 14 March 2012 Long term investment in energy efficiency in our households,  communities and businesses will create new job opportunities and stronger local and international economies which will help us transition to a clean energy future. That is the key message of some of the world’s leading energy thinkers, who visited Sydney for the inaugural Australian Summer Study on Energy Efficiency and Decentralised Energy from 29 February - 2 March 2012 . The event was proudly supported by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

In summary:

• The lowest-cost deployment of decentralised energy could shave more than $2.8 billion dollars a year from electricity bills by 2020 according to a new UTS report
• It says efficient use of energy, peak load management and localised small-scale generation would reduce the need for expensive centralised power stations, power lines and substations

Click here to download the Roadmap (3.55 MBytes) 

Decentralised Energy in an Intelligent Grid Over $45 billion is being spent on network infrastructure in the five years to 2015. Network spending is concentrated most strongly in NSW and Queensland but is affecting all jurisdictions. ...The current and previous approved regulatory spend on network infrastructure, highlighting the massive growth in the 2010–2015 period. This investment is driving substantial electricity price increases around the country. Sydney metropolitan area customers face five-year nominal price increases as high as 83 per cent.  ... Around one-third of total approved network investment, or almost $15 billion, is driven by peak demand growth and is thus considered potentially avoidable if demand growth were eliminated through measures such as Decentralised Energy. If deployed strategically, Decentralised Energy presents a means of achieving substantial reductions in this component of network spending.  (see Roadmap at page 8)

 Example of Technology in an Intelligent Grid

This Forum, the culmination of three years of research, marks the launch of the Australian Decentralised Energy Roadmap, the major component of the stakeholder engagement in the Intelligent Grid Research Cluster. Click to download the program.

The Roadmap is a concise and practical blueprint to accelerate the integration of decentralised energy into smarter electricity networks, was officially launched by the Hon. Martin Ferguson AM MP, Federal Minister for Resources and Energy.

Decentralised Energy (including energy efficiency, distributed generation, peak load management, and smart metering) will play a key role both in creating of a clean energy future and in ensuring that energy bills remain affordable for all Australians.

This event, co-hosted by the Australian Alliance to Save Energy, was the last in a series of six industry and stakeholder engagement forums held across Australia. The Roadmap is a key product of the Intelligent Grid (iGrid) Research Program, a major three-year research collaboration between the CSIRO and five of Australia’s leading universities, supported by the CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship.

The formal launch was followed by panel discussions with key stakeholders to discuss the Roadmap and its central themes of: the potential of decentralised energy, the benefits, costs and barriers associated with advancing decentralised energy technologies and policy options to address these barriers.

Date: Thursday 15, December, 2011
Location: Aerial Function Centre, Wattle Room, Level 7, Building 10, 235 Jones Street Ultimo, UTS (parking is available at the Thomas Street Carpark)
Time: 8.45am to 12.30pm

Speakers:
 

The Honourable Martin Ferguson AM MP- Minister for Resources and Energy
Mr George Maltabarow- Managing Director, Ausgrid
Dr Brian Spalding- Commissioner, Australian Energy Market Commission
Mr Jon Jutsen- Chairman, Australian Alliance to Save Energy
Prof. Stuart White - Director Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS
Dr Muriel Watt- Head of Energy Policy & PV, IT Power Australia
Mr Matt Levey- Head of Campaigns, CHOICE
Ms Madeleine Lyons- Manager, Origin Energy
Mr Chris Dunstan, Mr Edward Langham, Mr Chris Cooper and
Ms Nicola Ison - Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS

  This landmark event took place on 15 December.

Stuart White
Cluster Leader, Intelligent Grid Cluster