DID YOU KNOW THAT SMART POWER OFFERS... 

The Cook Strait Cable?  

The HVDC Inter-Island link is a high-capacity, bipolar high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system connecting the electricity networks of the North and South Islands of New Zealand together. It is commonly referred to as the Cook Strait cable, which is somewhat of a misnomer, because only a short section of the complete link is in cable, and there are actually three operational HVDC power cables across Cook Strait. However, the term Cook Strait cable is commonly used in the media and press releases.   

The link is owned and operated by state-owned transmission company Transpower New Zealand.

The 610 km link starts at the Benmore Hydroelectric Power Station, on the Waitaki River in Canterbury, and travels 534 km on an overhead transmission line through inland Canterbury and Marlborough to Fighting Bay in the Marlborough Sounds. From Fighting Bay, the link travels 40 km via submarine cables across Cook Strait to Oteranga Bay, near Wellington, before travelling the final 37 km on overhead lines to Haywards transmission sub-station in Lower Hutt.

The HVDC link is an important component of the transmission system in New Zealand. It connects the transmission grids of the two islands, and is used as an energy-balancing system, helping to match energy availability and demand in the two islands.

The two islands are geographically different - the South Island is 33% larger than the North Island in land area, but the North Island has over three times the population of the South Island. As a consequence, the North Island has a substantially larger energy demand. However, the South Island uses more electricity per capita due to its cooler climate and the presence of the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter, which at a peak demand of 640 MW is New Zealand's largest single electricity user, and the second largest load centre after the city of Auckland.   

South Island generation accounted for 40.9% of the nation's electricity in 2011, nearly all (97%) from hydroelectricity, while the North Island generated the remaining 59.1% from a mixture of mainly hydroelectric, natural gas and geothermal generation, plus smaller amount of coal and wind generation.  

If all currently commissioned generation is available, both islands have enough generating capacity at peak times, without the connection between the two islands.  However, the HVDC link provides benefits for customers in both the South Island and North Island:

• The link provides the South Island consumers with access to the North Island's thermal generation resources that can support the South Island demand during times of low hydro storage levels and low inflows to South Island hydro lakes.
• The link provides North Island consumers with access to the South Island's large hydro generation resources that can support the North Island demand at times of peak load.

The link plays an important role in the New Zealand electricity market, and allows North and South Island generators to compete with each other, therefore driving wholesale electricity prices down. 

NEW ZEALAND ENERGY HEADLINES 

Meridian Energy is considering the sale of its 50 per cent stake in the A$1 billion Macarthur wind farm in the Australian state of Victoria to book gains made available by the global drop in interest rates.

The state-owned enterprise's chief executive, Mark Binns, said the company stood to earn a "bond-like" return over the 25-year life of its joint venture arrangements for the massive 420MW windfarm, which it is building with Australian energy generator and retailer AGL.  Read more  

Ways to avoid sun, and capture it

Real-time technology developed by Niwa reveals when we should avoid the worst of the sun and harness the best of it this summer.

Tools on the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research's site can be used to gauge UV index forecasts, available for nearly 40 centres around the country, or show the amount of solar energy your home receives.

A check on Niwa's UVI forecaster shows in most centres UV reaches "extreme" levels between noon and 3pm, although it is often high enough to warrant sun protection as early as 9am and as late as 6pm.

Solar View, another application, allows homeowners using solar power to check the amount of energy available where they live. The technology can depict the sun's path from sunrise to sunset - even factoring in local terrain. Read more 

South Pole a cold mine in waiting

Reddish-brown smears on Antarctica's massive white canvas are a hint of a potentially troubling future for the continent.

The blots on the stark landscape are caused by stores of iron ore under the ice. Copper, coal, chromium and natural gas are also believed to be distributed across Antarctica, and huge oil deposits are thought to be held under its seabed.

Mining is strictly banned under the Antarctic Treaty, but many experts feel that the policy will come under increasing pressure - some even say it is inevitable that the rule will be overturned within decades.

A consensus approach to policy-making in the Antarctic meant that all 28 consulting countries - including New Zealand - would have to approve of resource exploration for it to go ahead.  Read more   

Keep cool, spend less on fuel this summer

A holiday road trip is part of the great Kiwi summer tradition, but paying the fuel bill can make you hot under the collar. Taking heed of a few simple driving tips can reduce the cost, according to EECA ENERGYWISE.

"While most people know 'fuel efficient driving' improves fuel economy, we've found many don't think it's going to make much of a difference," says EECA spokesperson Simon O'Brien.

"Actually, the effect is quite impressive: making small changes on an ongoing basis can improve fuel efficiency by around 10%. For the average Kiwi motorist, this is about $250 a year, or 20c/litre - a lot more than most supermarket fuel discount vouchers. If you drive a lot, you could be making savings of $1000 a year."  Read more 

Energy savings push extended to low-income families

As many as 25,000 low-income households will receive federal government support to cut their energy use in the first round of energy efficiency grants paid for by funds from the carbon tax.

The government will spend about $39.8 million - equivalent to almost $1,600 per household - on 11 projects involving trade unions, charities, welfare groups and companies. The projects will seek to lower the barriers to the energy savings, such as upfront costs and behaviour patterns.

"It is very difficult for many low-income households to find the capital costs to invest in energy-efficiency measures or, indeed, even to access the information necessary that can help them," Greg Combet, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, said.  Read more 

Australia takes a shine to solar energy research

Evans peddles change on energy use

Seeing energy the key to saving it

Invisibility is the main challenge in the drive to change the ways people save energy, with consumers more likely to cut their energy use if they can see it.

"The problem is, energy and energy production and infrastructure, are mostly invisible. Out of sight, out of mind, which is probably why we waste so much of it," director of Carbon Arts, Jodi Newcombe said in her opening speech to the Australia and US Dialogue on Energy Security in Sydney.

Energy companies overseas, such as Southern California Edison and PG&E in the US, have used creative devices such as an "Energy Orb" to make energy visible, resulting in up to 40 per cent reduction in peak period energy usage.

Originally designed to monitor financial information, the Energy Orb, designed by Ambient Devices, is a frosted-glass ball that glows different colours to display real time energy usage and corresponding electricity rates.

Ms Newcombe said these strategies work in managing consumer demand because consumers are more likely to act on a subtle but always present message than one that they are forced to stare at.  Read more 

INTERNATIONAL ENERGY HEADLINES 

Forget peak oil, says BP chief

Warnings that the world is headed for ''peak oil'' - when oil supplies decline after reaching the highest rates of extraction - appear ''increasingly groundless'', BP's chief executive said recently.

Bob Dudley's remarks came as the company published a study predicting oil production will increase substantially, and that unconventional and high-carbon oil will make up all of the increase in global oil supply to the end of this decade, with the explosive growth of shale oil in the US behind much of the growth.

As a result, the oil and gas company forecasts that carbon dioxide emissions will rise by more than a quarter by 2030 - a disaster, according to scientists, because if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change then studies suggest emissions must peak in the next three years or so.

So-called unconventional oil - shale oil, tar sands and biofuels - are the most controversial forms of the fuel, because they are much more carbon-intensive than conventional oilfields. They require large amounts of energy and water, and have been associated with serious environmental damage.  Read more 

'Coal-aholics' Poland Wages War on Efforts to Save the Climate

Poland is addicted to coal. That is the message the country has been sending both domestically and internationally as Warsaw prepares to host the global climate summit next year. In Europe, the Poles are isolated in their fight for looser emissions reduction goals and against fixes to the EU's cap-and-trade system. 

Poland is the 10th largest consumer of coal in the world and produces 92 percent of its electricity from coal, according to the World Coal Association. And despite EU targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, Poland is pressing forward with plans replace old coal plants with massive new ones.  Read more  

UK wind farm contracts to increase energy bills for families

Consumers could see bills rise in the coming years after "generous" deals worth £17 billion were agreed with energy firms delivering wind-generated power to homes, a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned.

Under a scheme agreed by Labour leader Ed Miliband during the last Labour government, but implemented by Coalition ministers, the contracts guarantee that the power firms will be paid even if they fail to deliver energy to households.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the PAC, described the contracts as a "licence for the private sector to print money at the expense of hard-pressed consumers".  Read more 

GravityLight: the low-cost lamp powered by sand and gravity         

The problem of bringing light to remote parts of the developing world has been tackled in the past with everything from solar-powered lamps to wind-up devices and rechargeable batteries - all of which require relatively expensive kit or physical effort by the user.

But two London-based designers have now developed a light source that operates on the stuff that surrounds you - earth, rocks or sand - with the helping hand of gravity.

Developed by Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves over the last four years, the GravityLight is simply charged by a bag that is filled with around 9kg of material and hung from a cord below the light. As the bag descends, a series of gears inside the device translates this weight into energy, providing 30 minutes of light. The light strength can be adjusted, from strong task lighting to a longer-lasting low-level glow, and two terminals on the front allow it to be used as a generator so it can recharge other devices including radios and batteries.

THE COMPANY VOICE