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DID YOU KNOW THAT SMART POWER OFFERS...
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EMERGENCY STANDBY GENERATION SOLUTIONS?
One of the specialised services that Smart Power can provide is providing a comprehensive standby or essential service generation plan.
This involves identifying those (essential) loads that cannot withstand a temporary outage and those loads that can be disconnected for a short length of time (non essential) without disruption to the business. They are distinctly different, and not only require different types of generation, but also different control and power restoration approaches.
These loads are then analysed to determine the size of uninterruptible power supplies for essential loads, and the subsequent on-site generation required to ensure business continuity regardless of the power outage cause. Read more
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| EVER WONDERED ABOUT.... | | | SMART GRIDS ?
A smart grid is a digitally enabled electrical grid that gathers, distributes, and acts on information about the behavior of all participants (suppliers and consumers) in order to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of electricity services.
The basic concept of a smart grid is to add monitoring, analysis, control, and communication capabilities to an electricity system to maximize the throughput of the system while reducing the energy consumption. A smart grid would allow utilities to move electricity around the system as efficiently and economically as possible. It would also allow the homeowner and business to use electricity as economically as possible.
One United States Department of Energy study calculated that internal modernization of US grids with smart grid capabilities would save between 46 and 117 billion dollars over the next 20 years. As well as these industrial modernization benefits, smart grid features could expand energy efficiency beyond the grid into the home by coordinating low priority home devices such as water heaters so that their use of power takes advantage of the most desirable energy sources. Smart grids can also coordinate the production of power from large numbers of small power producers such as owners of rooftop solar panels - an arrangement that would otherwise prove problematic for power systems operators at local utilities.
The following websites provide further interesting information about the smart grid concept:
Wikipedia
energy.gov
NEMA
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Greetings!
Welcome to the new edition of "Get Smart", Smart Power's regular bulletin. Get Smart provides a round-up of energy news and views from Australia, New Zealand and around the world.
In "Company Voice" this month, director Rod Boyte talks about the company values that set Smart Power apart.
As always your feedback is most welcome. |
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AUSTRALIAN ENERGY HEADLINES
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O'Farrell affirms electricity assets pledge
New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell has ruled out reversing his decision against the full privatisation of the state's electricity assets during his first term in government.
The Premier said he would not change his mind about retaining the ''poles and wires'' in public ownership, because he had made a clear commitment before last year's state election he would not and ''there would have to be a mandate for it''.
Mr O'Farrell ruled out using his overwhelming majority in the lower house to fully privatise power assets against the wishes of his National Party colleagues. Read more
Save energy, unplug the beer fridge
That old fridge out the back keeping the drinks cold for the holidays might be better unplugged. It could be adding $290 a year to your electricity bill the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) warns.
Unused swimming pools are an even bigger waste of money. A household with a pool will spend an average of $620 a year more on energy than a comparable household that doesn't.
IPART's research indicates thousands of asset rich but cash-poor empty nesters living in sizeable homes are forking out hundreds of dollars each year to run under-used gadgets. Read more
Twice the pain for some industrial power users
The carbon tax will push up electricity prices by about double the 10 per cent nominated in Treasury modelling for some of the nation's biggest industrial power users.
The biggest electricity users will face power price rises of about 20 per cent, sparking warnings that it will severely damage elements of the nation's manufacturing sector.
The government argues its carbon price compensation scheme will ease the pressure on big power users such as the aluminium industry.
It also says electricity costs represent only a small proportion of the costs of firms not eligible for emissions-intensive trade-exposed industry assistance, meaning it will not make a material difference to the viability of the businesses. Read more
Row over Canada's Kyoto exit
Canada's decision to become the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol has sparked a political firefight in Australia, with the opposition and business critics of the government's carbon tax package saying it shows the policy is ahead of global action on climate change.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet played down the significance of Canada's decision, saying it had been widely expected and that Canada remained in favour of a legally binding emissions agreement for all major economies.
Pulling out of Kyoto now allows Canada to avoid paying penalties of up to $US13.6 billion for missing its targets. Read more
Green energy fund 'too broad', says Australian Industry Group
The Australian Industry Group has warned that the investment scope of the government's $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation is "broad to the point of vagueness", joining a chorus of business concern.
The AiGroup submission comes as the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network warned the fund could distort markets.
It backs the position of the Australian Coal Association, which attacked the decision of the multi-party climate change committee to exclude carbon capture and storage from funding for the deal. Read more
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NEW ZEALAND ENERGY HEADLINES
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SOE sell-downs could fetch $6.8b
New Zealand's sell-down of state-owned energy companies would gross about $6.8 billion, provided investors agree with the latest valuations by investment banks and research houses.
The valuations, published on the Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit website, are about $2 billion higher than the stock exchange operator, NZX, had assumed in its review of its index methodologies, which was announced last month.
The government plans to sell down its holdings to around 50 per cent. Read more
Meridian opens West Wind Recreation Area
People can now get a closer look at Wellington's wind turbines following the opening of the West Wind Recreation Area.
Meridian Energy, the country's largest electricity generator, today officially opened part of its West Wind wind farm at Makara to the public.
Meridian's Wind Maintenance Manager, Russell Thomas, says giving the public access to West Wind has been part of Meridian's plan since the project was consented in 2007. Read more
Solar power on the rise as technology gets cheaper
Even if it is cloudy today the thin solar panels on Hubbard Foods' Auckland factory are helping put the morning cereal on the table.
In the United States, a solar station built by a New Zealand energy company is generating power for the Californian state grid, and the same company is building a solar station in Tonga.
Throughout New Zealand homeowners are signing up in growing numbers to generate their own power from the sun.
As the price of the technology falls - it has halved in the past two years - it's becoming more popular. Read more
Check your tyre pressure to reduce fuel costs
Did you know that you can save up to 16 cents a litre on your fuel bill just by keeping your tyres inflated to the correct tyre pressure? Although it is easy to do, recent research shows that many people don't bother to do it, or don't know how to do it.
A 2011 Automobile Association (AA) Research Foundation survey supported by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) found that nearly half of drivers had not checked their tyre pressure in the last month. Read more
Electricity in New Zealand
The 2011 edition of the Electricity Authority's publication "Electricity in New Zealand" is now available for download. The document provides an overview of New Zealand's electricity system in the new era ushered in by the Electricity Industry Act 2010. It is non-technical and an interesting read for anyone wanting to gain a broad understanding of the electricity market. It also contains numerous facts and figures. For example did you know that there are currently over 670,000 smart meters installed in New Zealand, or that almost 25 million retail electricity invoices are issued each year! Read more
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INTERNATIONAL ENERGY HEADLINES
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Greece turns to energy as its economic saviour
Greece's economy is in ruins, crushed by the country's vast debt load. But government officials say that energy may offer a way out of the mess. Athens is looking to develop renewable energy sources at the same time as it explores for oil.
Energy officials in the financially beleaguered nation are naming a major solar project after the sun God Helios and banking on energy more broadly as a possible way out of the financial crisis. That means expediting plans for oil exploration, offshore wind energy production and, possibly, as a future natural gas hub. It also means completing oil and gas pipelines and privatizing state-owned oil, gas and power concerns. Read more
$4.8 million sought in US electricity price-fixing case
An electricity price-fixing scandal thought to have cost New York consumers about $300 million has led to a proposed settlement with Morgan Stanley for $4.8 million. But the proposal has brought complaints from a consumer group, which points out that the company took in four times that much in the scheme.
In February, a judge approved a settlement against another defendant, the KeySpan Energy Corporation, which had a complex deal using derivatives that gave it a stake in the profits of a competitor, Astoria Generating Company. KeySpan then closed some of its generators, pushing up revenue for its remaining power and for Astoria's; the move also benefited generators around the state not involved in the scheme. KeySpan did not admit wrongdoing but paid $12 million. Read more
China considers carbon tax
China's lead negotiator on climate change says the world's largest emitter is considering imposing a tax on carbon to reduce the use of dirty energy as its economy grows.
Su Wei, on a visit to Washington, said that the fast-developing Asian power was looking at the impact of an outright tax on carbon and whether it would overlap with China's plans for a pilot scheme on carbon emissions trading.
"I think the carbon tax is one of the instruments that can be used," Su Wei told reporters on Wednesday during a visit to the World Resources Institute. Read more
China's pre-fab future: green buildings in blink of an eye
A 30-storey green building in Hunan province, China, has become the latest internet sensation after a time lapse video showed it being constructed in just 360 hours.
The five-star, prefabricated, T30 Hotel at Dongting Lake, was constructed by 200 builders over 15 days and opens on January 18.
Zhang Yue, the Chinese air-conditioning tycoon behind the engineering feat, now intends to duplicate the model across the vast and heavily polluted nation.
He said the speed with which his buildings go up reduces waste of materials and energy.
The buildings, which feature quadruple-glazed windows and only use energy-saving lighting, are predicted to become his biggest business in 2013. Read more
UK energy giant hits 1GW wind power milestone
Energy giant Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) said it now has more than one gigawatt (GW), the equivalent of 1,000 megawatts (MW), of onshore wind farm capacity in operation for the first time.
The increase from just 40MW six years ago means capacity is now enough to power, on average, about 800,000 homes.
SSE's milestone comes after rival Scottish Power last June became the first company in the UK to reach the one gigawatt wind power capacity mark.
Companies are investing heavily in renewable energy, urged on by European targets. SSE currently has 30 onshore wind farms in operation, with another 48 in progress. Read more
Germany's wind power revolution in the doldrums
The construction of offshore wind parks in the North Sea has hit a snag with a vital link to the onshore power grid hopelessly behind schedule. When work is completed on the Nordsee Ost wind farm, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the island of Helgoland in the North Sea, the sea air will be filled with a strong smell of fumes: diesel fumes.
The reason is as simple as it is surprising. The wind farm operator, German utility RWE, has to keep the sensitive equipment -- the drives, hubs and rotor blades -- in constant motion, and for now that requires diesel-powered generators. Because although the wind farm will soon be ready to generate electricity, it won't be able to start doing so because of a lack of infrastructure to transport the electricity to the mainland and feed it into the grid. The necessary connections and cabling won't be ready on time and the delay could last up to a year. Read more
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THE COMPANY VOICE
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Rod Boyte was one of the founding directors of Smart Power, which was established in 1993. Rod is involved in maintaining and developing Smart Power's business - with key interests in the provision of energy audits and high level consultancy on energy purchasing strategies. In the past few years Rod has been responsible for the production of over 50 energy audits ranging from large industrial applications to medium size commercial operations.
In 2009 Rod set up Smart Power Utilities based in Melbourne. He is the key account manager for Smart Power's many Australia based clients. Rod has a Bachelor of Technology (Industrial) Hons from Massey University, was formerly on the national executive of the Energy Management Association of New Zealand (EMANZ) and is accredited as an energy auditor by the EMANZ. "Smart Power has been operating in Australia for the last 5 years. In that time we have brought on board customers like Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), the Victorian Country Fire Authority (CFA), the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC), Pumpkin Patch and Darebin City Council. Equally importantly we have established ourselves in our offices in Melbourne and started to spread the word on the values that Smart Power has that we believe differentiates ourselves from others operating in the Energy Management area - whether that be in NZ or Australia. A key value that we have is to exceed our customers' expectations. If you ask us to do something you should always feel that the resulting output not only meets your requirements, but also provides you with more valuable input into your business. Another fundamental for us is that the customer should never end up with unexpected costs from using Smart Power. We understand that consultants' costs can quickly get out of hand when "out-of-scope" work is added in at high hourly rates. For this reason we prefer charging fixed fees that cover our expected costs and typically allow for a number of hours out-of-scope so that the customer does not get hit with these unexpected costs. It goes without saying that technically Smart Power has the capability to deliver the results you would expect from an engineering based consultancy. We have been operating for almost 20 years in the Energy Management environment and have completed hundreds of energy audits as well as being involved with implementing many projects on behalf of our customers. We have EMANZ accredited energy auditors making us ideally placed to carry out Energy Assessments as stipulated by the Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO), or similar State based programmes, or EECA subsidised Energy Audits in NZ. Finally, but certainly not least, we believe in the importance of our relationship with our customer. When we are working for our customer we believe that we are effectively part-time employees of that customer -and our contacts are our work colleagues. This attitude helps us in quickly resolving any issues that do arise without resorting to endless references to what is included in a contract (or not). If you are an existing customer we trust that you have seen these values first hand. For potential customers I would encourage you to try us and experience the difference!" |
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This newsletter was provided by:
Smart Power Utilities
PO Box 608, Eltham, Melbourne
VIC 3095, AUSTRALIA
ABN 72 121 464 864
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