Australia's energy sector readies for smart grids

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 06:35

IT Industry - Market

Rolling out smart-grid technology is a “business imperative” for Australia’s energy distributors and network owners, with a new study finding that the key challenges facing the industry as it considers the deployment of smart grids, are the regulatory framework, funding, ICT, people, strategy and the consumer.

The study by global provider of business consulting, systems integration, IT and BPO services, Logica, found that the current key drivers for Australia’s energy companies for smart grids are service reliability, demand-side management, network performance and security.
 
According to Logica’s, managing director, business solutions, Hugh Bickerstaff , “smart grids will provide better visibility over the network and enable energy distributors to better manage peak electricity demands and reduce the risk of blackouts, which is a concern for distributors right now.”

But, Bickerstaff says “this will look very different in 2020, where respondents expect to see a greater priority placed on renewable energies, micro generation, energy storage, lowering carbon emissions and changing consumer behaviour.”

Bickerstaff also said that 25 percent of Australia’s energy distributors surveyed already have strategies in place for rolling out the smart grid technology and were “further refining those strategies as the result of trials and pilots,” and that “the remaining 75 percent have begun the development of their smart grid strategy. These organisations, however, are far from stationary with wide programs of work underway that fall under the smart grid banner.”

On the issue of ICT, Bickerstaff said that “ICT and the extension of real-time technologies came back as a major concern for energy companies,” adding that “there will be unprecedented volumes of data generated by a smart grid and organisations will need to effectively manage and gain intelligence from this data.”

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