 |
|
DID YOU KNOW THAT SMART POWER OFFERS...
| | |
Professional Advice?
Navigating the energy industry can be complex. At Smart Power we are here to make this easy for you. We offer the following support:
Emissions trading scheme - we can help you collect the data, calculate the emissions and complete the reporting on this information.
Financial energy and environmental reporting - our utility dashboard helps you budget for utilities and report against your monthly budgets.
Web based access to financial utility and environmental information - this online service, e-Smart, enables clients to access their most up-to-date reports directly during any month
Spot market risk analysis - we've developed tools to determine the risks and rewards of different levels of spot market exposure. We'll work with you to advise you on the best level of exposure for your organisation.
Changes to the energy sector - keeping up with changes in the energy sector can be challenging. We use our knowledge to put together clear and concise briefing papers for our clients which identify the impact of any changes on them.
Energy budget and forecast mapping - we use our knowledge to help you determine better estimates of future pricing and can forecast expected consumption.
Hedge accounting services - If you need to know the net present value of the unexpired portion of your electricity hedge (contract for difference), using the expiry date, strike price, settlement Grid Exit Point (GXP) and hedge quantity we can do this for you. We can carry out this calculation for you for a single hedge or a portfolio of hedges so you can make an informed decision on your next step.
|
|
EVER WONDERED ABOUT....
| | |
Power factor correction?
In the last issue of Get Smart we defined Power Factor and explained why it was important. This month we're looking at "Power Factor Correction" - what is it, and how does it actually work.
First, some definitions:
Real Power (KW)
Real Power is the electrical energy, which is consumed and not stored in a magnetic field. Real power is measured in kWh and when you talk about buying electricity this is what you are referring to. Real power is also referred to as effective power, billable power, and resistive power.
Reactive Power (kVAr)
Reactive power is energy in a system that is stored in magnetic fields. Fluctuating with the voltage cycle, reactive loads convert electrical energy to stored magnetic energy and then transfer stored magnetic energy back into electrical energy. Reactive loads such as inductors and capacitors do not dissipate power, but the system must be designed to handle the additional current from these loads. Reactive Power is necessary for normal operation of inductive loads, like magnetic ballasts and electrical motors.
Reactive power is also referred to as Imaginary Power or Phantom Power.
Apparent Power (kVA)
Apparent power is the vector sum of Real Power and Reactive Power.
Power factor is the ratio between real power and apparent power. In a circuit with no reactive power the ratio of real power and apparent power is equal to 1 or 100% real power. In a circuit where there is an equal amount of real power and reactive power the power factor is 0.707. How does Power Factor Correction Work? There are two types of reactive power, inductive and capacitive.
Inductive loads store energy in a magnetic field. The peak current draw for an inductive load lags voltage peak by 90 degrees.
A capacitive load stores energy in a magnetic charge. The peak current draw for a capacitive load leads voltage peak by 90 degrees.
Inductive currents and capacitive currents are 180 degrees out of phase from each other, so when an inductive current has a positive peak, capacitive current has a negative current peak. Inductive current and capacitive current have an inverse relationship, and cancel each other out.
Capacitors discharge current when inductors are conducting current, and inductors supply current when capacitors are charging.
It's important to size capacitors correctly and special control systems are required to make sure the capacitors only work when they are required to, and can switch in and out of the system safely. Reference: Hearn Engineering white paper |
|
|
Greetings!
Welcome to this edition of "Get Smart", Smart Power's regular bulletin. Get Smart provides a round-up of energy news and views from New Zealand, Australia and around the world.
In "Company Voice" this month, director Brett Cameron offers advice in anticipation of the annual network charge adjustments at 1 April.
As always your feedback is most welcome. |
|
|
NEW ZEALAND ENERGY HEADLINES
| |
Govt cool on heat plan
The future of a $330 million subsidised home heating and insulation scheme is in doubt despite tracking ahead of budget and being considered a huge success.
The Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart project began in July 2009, offering to pay up to a third of the cost to retrofit insulation and clean heating into homes built before 2000. More than 200,000 homes have benefited from the initiative.
A glowing Treasury report describes the benefits as "almost five times the resource costs". The estimates of gross benefits for the programme are about $1.3 billion compared with the resource cost of just $330 million.
The biggest success has been in the area of health improvements, which make up about "99 per cent of the total benefits". Read more
Multiple factors at work in Mighty River share prices
A number of key influences will come to bear on the share prices of Mighty River Power, and the other state-owned power generators, once they hit the NZX boards.
The key drivers are likely to be the weather, demand, energy efficiency, growth, structural changes in the economy, governance and perhaps the most important of all, risk management, analysts say.
Improved efficiency of the national power grid could also play a part in their performance.
Nationally, electricity demand has declined slightly over the last two years. Lacklustre growth and shutdowns of major power-intensive industries has meant demand on the industrial front has been flat to declining. Doubts about the future of Rio Tinto-controlled Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is also clouding the demand outlook, because Tiwai consumes about 14 per cent of New Zealand's total power supply. Read more
Shipley - Judge me on results
Genesis Energy chairwoman Dame Jenny Shipley says the state owned enterprise is ready for partial sale but was coy on whether she would be leading the company on the sharemarket.
Shipley has been under fire from market figures given her board roles in the failed construction company Mainzeal, its parent company Richina and Seniors Money International the owner of a home equity release company which is also under financial pressure.
Speaking at the release of Genesis' half year result, she said her future as chair was up to the Government, which still owns all of the company.
"We're always here at the behest of our shareholders - this is true of any company whether it's a government owned company or not. I've always been judged my results in my career and I expect to be judged by my results in the future." Read more
Orion seeks permission for price hike
Christchurch power company Orion has asked the Commerce Commission for permission to hike prices by 5 per cent to recover earthquake rebuild costs.
The firm wants to revamp its electricity network which was damaged in the devastating Canterbury 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and put in high voltage underground cables, overheard lines and pylons, and new substations.
But they want consumers to pay for it, with the upgrade estimated to cost households an extra $1000 over the next 10 years - or on average $8.70 a month, from April next year.
"As a result of our final calculations, the figure of $8.70 is slightly higher than the $8.50 communicated in our draft proposal last year," Orion chief executive Rob Jamieson said. Read more
Kiwis take more than a fair share
We're known for being clean and green, but Kiwis are still eating up at least twice their fair share of the planet when it comes to sustainability.
Two papers released recently by the Royal Society of New Zealand explore how many people the country could support sustainably - and how comfortably.
They found that if the entire world was to live like a New Zealander, we would require more than two planets to sustain us.
Some estimates had put the number as high as five.
The research looked at specific areas - climate change, food production, water quality, native biodiversity, transport and fisheries - where sustainability became an issue and could constrain the country's ability to provide wellbeing to its residents. Read more
|
|
AUSTRALIAN ENERGY HEADLINES
| |
Union puts heat on Yallourn electricity generators
Union members have been deliberately reducing electricity output at the Yallourn power station during the hottest parts of the afternoon as Victorians swelter through a record heatwave.
The industrial action reduces the electricity the plant's owner - EnergyAustralia - can sell into the market, although the nation's market regulator says power supplies have not been affected.
EnergyAustralia will on Tuesday seek court orders to end the action and wants compensation for the electricity it has not been able to sell. Hot days usually cause the highest demand for energy because more people use airconditioners.
Members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union have been using a manual override to reduce output at four generators between 4pm and 6pm every afternoon since March 1. Read more
Stress over renewable energy goal
Pressure is mounting within the federal Coalition to abolish or scale back the 20 per cent renewable energy target, with Nationals senator Ron Boswell claiming his party backs his demand the policy be axed.
While pledging to abolish the carbon price, the Coalition has always offered bipartisan support for the RET, which remains the biggest driver of investment in renewable energy.
But Senator Boswell told the Senate on Thursday that the RET should be abolished because it was increasing electricity prices and was ''costing jobs in western Sydney''.
''The whole of the National Party agrees with me, although we haven't got a formal policy on it yet, and I suspect many Liberals do also,'' Senator Boswell said.
''If we want to have a manufacturing sector in Australia, we have to dump the carbon tax and abolish the RET.'' Read more
We can keep energy assets: Queensland minister Queensland's energy minister says there is a strong argument for keeping electricity assets in state control despite a major report recommending they be sold.
Mark McArdle says making power companies more efficient could be a better way forward - but denies he is at odds with Treasurer Tim Nicholls. Mr Nicholls has said selling assets has merit and his position was backed by former federal treasurer Peter Costello's audit of Queensland's finances.
The audit, released in part on Friday, recommended selling electricity and port assets to reduce state debt.
Mr McArdle said selling assets would only be considered with a mandate from voters at the next election, but added there may be a case for holding on to them. Read more
Business cheers cut of state energy efficiency program
Business groups have welcomed the Victorian government's decision to end a mandatory energy efficiency program almost two years early in a bid to end unnecessary duplication with the carbon tax and a similar national scheme.
Victoria's Environment Protection Authority last week began informing the 250 or so companies required to comply with the Environment Resource Efficiency Plans (EREP) that identifying and implementing energy and water efficiency improvements would now be voluntary.
The state government brought forward its sunset date from the end of 2014 to now "to reduce the compliance burden on businesses due to duplication with current Commonwealth programs, including the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program and the carbon price", the EPA said in a letter to participants. Read more
More pain to come on power prices Hard on the heels of a doubling of electricity prices, the head of Australia's largest listed energy utility, Origin Energy, has warned of a heavy new round of capital spending that might place further pressure on power prices. After the steep rise in power prices over the past five years due to heavy network investment, Origin managing director Grant King said a new round of spending would be necessary to achieve the federal government's renewable energy target (RET). This will come as the government is seeking to rein in power prices, hoping that electricity will decline under a ''CPI minus X'' pricing regime. But according to Origin's estimates, about 2200 megawatts of additional wind generation capacity will be needed annually between 2017 and 2020, ''which will require an enormous increase in activity to 2020'' in terms of new investment, Mr King said. Read more |
|
INTERNATIONAL ENERGY HEADLINES
| |
Abu Dhabi seeks 10-fold increase in solar energy
Abu Dhabi, the largest sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates, is making a 10-fold boost in its capacity to generate electricity from the sun by starting the Shams 1 solar plant with partners Total SA and Abengoa SA.
Masdar, the state-owned renewable energy company, will supply 100 megawatts of electricity from the Middle East's largest facility using concentrated solar technology, Chief Executive Officer Sultan al Jaber said recently at the plant's inauguration in the inland desert west of the U.A.E.'s capital, also called Abu Dhabi.
Countries in the Middle East and North Africa are developing sources of renewable energy to help satisfy the needs of growing populations and economies. Many of these states export oil and natural gas and are trying to cut their own demand for those fuels, which they use to produce power that governments generally sell at subsidized prices. Read more
Hunt for energy dives deep below the iceJapan and India, Asia's biggest energy consumers after China, are closer to unlocking natural gas deposits trapped in ice below the seabed that may prove bigger than the world's known fossil-fuel reserves.
Japan Oil, Gas & Metals National Corp. said yesterday it produced gas in the world's first offshore test to extract the fuel from the frozen depths. A team including Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India's biggest energy explorer, will drill off the east coast this year and try to produce the fuel, according to two officials at the regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. They asked to not be named before the official announcement.
The nations are trying to catch up with North America, where discoveries of gas in shale rock and tar sands herald an energy revolution carrying the U.S. and Canada toward energy independence. While shale is found in only certain parts of the globe, carbon frozen with water -- called methane hydrates or burnable ice -- is found under most sea beds. The catch: There's no technology yet to commercially extract that gas. Read more
Green tax boost for British wind farm profits
A briefing document on the wind industry written for investors shows how attempts to increase the supply of green energy will make turbines far more profitable over the next decade.
It predicts that wind farms will generate greater income following the introduction of a new tax on energy from gas and coal-fired power stations because it will drive up the cost of electricity over the next seven years.
The new tax, intended to cut pollution from traditional sources of electricity, will allow wind farm operators to charge more for the power they produce, with the extra costs expected to be passed on to consumers through their bills. Energy industry experts predict the new tax will cost electricity customers an extra £1billion a year from 2016. Read more
US cities pushing to take over electricity generation
Across the United States, cities are showing a renewed interest in taking over the electricity business from private utilities, reflecting intensifying concerns about climate change, responses to power disruptions and a desire to pump more renewable energy into the grid.
Boulder, Colorado, for instance, could take an important step towards creating its own municipal utility, among the nation's first in years, as soon as next month. A scheduled vote by the City Council comes after a study process that residents, impatient with the private electric company's pace in reaching the city's environmental goals, helped pay for by raising their own taxes. Read more
Falling Electricity
What do you do if you have an old open-pit mine lying around that you no longer need? Well, you could turn it into a hydroelectric energy scheme. In Ontario one power company has plans to use an abandoned open-pit iron ore mine for a pumped storage hydroelectric project. It would create a waterfall 5 times the height of Niagara Falls from the slag mountain to the mine pit below. At night the company would use cheap electricity to pump water up to a reservoir. Then releasing the water during the day would generate 400-megawatts of power they could sell at high prices. Read more
|
|
|
THE COMPANY VOICE
| |
Director Brett Cameron brings substantial metering and network experience to the team. He began working in the electricity industry in 1983 for the Auckland Electric Power Board. Brett moved through various positions of the business, specialising in the installation, maintenance, commissioning, and fault location of high voltage sub-transmission equipment. Brett moved into the energy retailing side of the business when the industry first began to deregulate and Vector was formed. As a business manager, Brett managed a portfolio of Mercury Energy's largest customers. His primary concern was the development of sustainable relationships with large commercial customers to ensure their continuing business. Brett has been with the Smart Power group of companies since 2003. and specialises in metering, network configuration analysis including cost minimisation, temporary data logging, and half hour technical data analysis and reporting.
"
Line charges change yet again
It's that time again when line charges are about to change as of 1 April 2013. It might be a rebalance or simply an increase, but either way, it means they're going to change. Knowing retailers as we do, they'll implement these changes using some form of "batch program", which in our game means there's a chance the new charges could be implemented incorrectly.
Not only is this a milestone event to check that the new charges have been implemented correctly, but also to review the applied network tariff and ensure it's the most cost effective option. Network companies are known for "tweaking" tariffs during this process and it's not unreasonable to find alternative network tariffs that could offer reductions in line charges.
A good example is where Electra has introduced a new load group for customers using over 42,000 kWh and for eligible customers, there's the potential for savings. Could this be you too?
Another more pertinent example, and one close to my heart, is where Vector is implementing their 2nd stage pricing for poor power factor penalties (of which there's one more step to come in 2014). The rate is increasing from 0.0011$/kVAr/day to 0.0731$/kVAr/day which is an increase of ~6,600%! That's a subtle one to slip in for the unsuspecting punter. What was previously a penalty amounting to about ~$2.17/month is about to become ~$144/month from 1 April. And who knows, this might become ~$340/month from 1 April 2014!
The point is, line charges are changing, and electricity retailers will simply pass them on; right or wrong. It's not their job to ensure that line charges are at the lowest cost available for their customers, nor is it their job to point out (totally avoidable) poor power factor penalties.
1 April 2013 (AKA April Fool's Day) is not a day to simply accept the line charges that electricity retailers apply, but a reminder for smart businesses to once again verify that their network charges are at the lowest cost for their respective business, and that any possible (and avoidable) penalties are identified and rectified ASAP.
Be a smart business, check your line charges from 1 April or ask Smart Power to do it for you.
"
|
|
This newsletter was provided by:
Smart Power
|
|
|
|
|
