Wednesday 01 February 2012
There are likely to be only modest benefits from a smart grid implementation over this decade, according to the findings of a study by Professor Goran Strbac of Imperial College, London. The benefits for New Zealand are quantified in terms of the opportunity for the smart grid to defer investment in electricity infrastructure.
The study undertakes a detailed quantitative and New Zealand specific analysis of the potential benefits to the electricity system of emerging new sources of electricity demand and control (“smart grid”). Previous studies have focussed on the technology itself or have been undertaken in other jurisdictions, where industry issues are substantially different.
Jason McDonald, Meridian’s Strategy and Performance Manager, says, New Zealand’s issues relate to energy constraints rather than peak constraints, which are common issues for Australia, USA and Europe. “New Zealand also benefits from a long history of active demand management in the form of hot water control.”
However, Professor Strbac says the longer term picture will change. “Expected future increases in electricity demand will create a substantial economic case for smart technology in New Zealand.”
Along with detailed modelling of the New Zealand electricity system, the project team also applied international and local expertise to look at the way electricity use might change, such as through the adoption of heat pumps and electric vehicles. The introduction of these technologies and patterns of use may have a substantial impact on the use of electricity, quite different from what we see today.
“Another surprise was the relative contribution of different components of a smart grid. The problem is one of peak shifting in the longer term. While many have expected control of home appliances to be the focus, the study showed these to have moderate to small benefits – the amount of energy used by refrigerators and whiteware appliances is relatively small. The big wins are around water heating, which New Zealand has traditionally had a degree of control over, and in future smart management of heat pump and electric vehicle use,” says Professor Strbac. “The study underscores the importance of building on New Zealand’s history of water heating control as it provides significant network benefits.”
The study concludes that future changes in electricity demand may create a substantial economic case for a smart grid in New Zealand. If electrification of the transport sector and increased electrification of heating occurs then widespread distribution network benefits may be seen from around 2020, and generation benefits may appear from 2030.
Mr McDonald says, “What this study says to us is that we have to take a fully informed, system-wide approach to understanding the benefits of these technologies. The technological capability is well developed, but we have to ensure that international experiences and lessons are evaluated in a New Zealand context to ensure valuable commercial deployment.
“In the short term, we would caution against significant changes in regulatory incentives to support smart grid deployments, or to substantially lift requirements for this technology. Rather, we believe supportive legislation, such as incentivising lines companies to invest in efficiency initiatives and investment in targeted deployments and trials of smart grid functionality as being the right way to fully inform ourselves on the benefits before committing to significant investment. We already have a number of technologies in place, such as smart metering and hot water control, and we can learn a lot from that.”
ENDS
Smart New Zealand Energy Futures: A Feasibility Study – summary report and presentation
For further information contact:
Amy Lockyer
External Communications
Meridian Energy
021 722 393
About Meridian Energy
Meridian is New Zealand’s largest electricity generator and currently owns and operates seven hydro stations, four wind farms within New Zealand, and one wind farm in Australia:
Internationally, Meridian has operations in Sydney Australia and San Francisco, California.
Meridian also retails electricity to around 270,000 individual customer connections (including Powershop) throughout New Zealand, which includes households, farms and businesses. It also provides electricity to New Zealand’s single largest electricity user, the Rio Tinto Alcan New Zealand Limited aluminium smelter in Bluff.
Meridian invests strongly in renewable energy development and has over 1,500 megawatts of Australasian development opportunities in the development pipeline.
About Goran Strbac
Goran Strbac is a Professor of Electrical Energy Systems at Imperial College London. He is the Director of the DTI Centre for Distributed Generation and Sustainable Electrical Energy, the Convener of CIGRE International Working Group on Economics of Integration of Distributed Generation and a member of the Executive Team of the IEE Professional Network on Power Trading and Control. He is a co-author of three books and has published more than 100 scientific papers.
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Wednesday 02 May 2012
Tuesday 01 May 2012