by Komoneed | Dec 4, 2024
The Australian Government has commenced a review into how Australia’s largest electricity grid and market will operate in the coming decades, aiming to keep costs low for households and business while better managing the rapid increase and integration of rooftop solar and utility-scale reliable renewables.
An independent panel, led by Associate Professor Tim Nelson with Paula Conboy, Ava Hancock and Philip Hirschhorn, will undertake widespread consultation and make its final recommendations to Energy and Climate Ministers in late 2025.
The panel will look at National Energy Market (NEM) wholesale market settings to ensure the market promotes investment in firmed renewable energy generation and storage capacity into the 2030s and beyond.
The NEM interconnected network has around 40,000 km of transmission lines and cables, and supplies electricity to more than 23 million people.
It covers all states and territories apart from Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and was originally designed to support a baseload power grid predominantly fuelled by coal generators.
A review has become increasingly important to ensure the right settings are in place to meet increasing demand for electricity, and to support a smooth transition to reliable renewables as aging coal-fired power stations are retired from the system.
The Commonwealth, with the support of NEM state and territory governments, previously responded to the need for accelerated investment in firmed renewables by introducing the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), which will deliver almost half as much capacity again in clean, cheap, reliable renewables and storage as is in the current NEM, by 2030.
State and territory governments and energy market bodies were consulted on the review’s terms of reference, which are available at the NEM Wholesale Market Settings Review page on DCCEEW’s website.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said: “The review will provide a comprehensive assessment of what the market will need next, once the current CIS tenders end in 2027, to ensure that investment pipeline remains strong.”
Image credit: iStock.com/MAXSHOT
by Komoneed | Dec 4, 2024
Following the recent United Nations biodiversity and climate conferences, the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) began Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the goal of tackling drought, desertification and land degradation. The UN has found that, in order to restore the planet’s degraded lands and prevent […]
The post COP16 to Address Global Land Degradation and Desertification Begins in Saudi Arabia appeared first on EcoWatch.
by Komoneed | Dec 4, 2024
The site of a cranberry bog in Carver, Massachusetts now serves double-duty as a community solar plant after receiving Permission to Operate approval on November 26. The Carver Solar project, owned by New York-based solar developer and operator Syncarpha Capital, sits on 28 acres leased by E.J. Pontiff Cranberries Inc. in an overall 765-acre plot […]
The post Massachusetts Cranberry Bog Hosts Community Solar Plant appeared first on EcoWatch.
by Komoneed | Dec 4, 2024
This post was originally published on WBCSDWhile transition planning may be precipitated by climate change, business change is a familiar feature of corporate management. This unlock articulates how a company can use a business change management framework to implement...
by Komoneed | Dec 3, 2024
Following its win in October at the Australian Water Association (AWA) Victorian Water Awards, Victorian utility South East Water has netted two more awards at this year’s Asian Water Awards, held in late 2024.
The utility’s Hydrotrak Geofencing technology received the Water Technology Excellence (Research and Development) – Australia award, as well as the Water Technology Excellence (Water Resource Management) – Australia award, at the Asian Water Awards.
Developed by South East Water’s Research and Development and Operational Technology teams, the Hydrotrak Geofencing System uses GPS location devices integrated with GIS spatial data of its network and hydrants to automatically detect the location of a vehicle when it is stopped at a hydrant for a tanker-filling operation.
The device then automatically sounds an audible alarm, prompting the driver to push the fill button, which generates billing data.
Since deploying the system in December 2022 to over 300 water carter vehicles, South East Water said it has recovered more than 65 ML of water that was previously unaccounted for, reducing both water and revenue loss.
South East Water’s General Manager of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation, Daniel Sullivan, said the solution played an important role in driving long-term water security and South East Water’s financial sustainability.
“HydroTrak helps us account for water extraction from our hydrants, providing improved financial outcomes at a time when customer affordability is a challenge,” he said.
“It resolves a common industry problem — the inability to detect and charge water carters for their hydrant use. Historically, this has resulted in significant water and revenue loss for water utilities, with these losses needing to be absorbed by customers.”
South East Water said it is working with a number of interested organisations to facilitate industry-wide adoption of the Hydrotrak Geofencing System. The utility anticipates that larger-scale adoption of the technology could provide better financial outcomes for the industry.
“Understanding water carter consumption will allow for better demand forecasting, resource planning and management. This will translate into numerous community-wide benefits like better, fairer prices for customers,” Sullivan explained.
Image credit: iStock.com/yotto
