Distributed energy: Towards lowest cost electricity

Australia confronts an unprecedented set of challenges in developing its electricity system with significant impacts likely from climate change, the financial crisis, reliability and asset renewal.

The issue is particularly relevant in Victoria with its heavy dependence on carbon intensive resources for our energy supply.

The issues span the whole supply chain, from production issues like distributed generation and all the way down the chain to end-use efficiency.

Sustainability Victoria hosted a forum in July on behalf of CSIRO to facilitate the integration of distributed energy technology with a more intelligent electricity network. 

The forum, iGrid, was successful in bringing together participants from electricity network businesses, distributed generation companies, regulators and government and research institutions among others.

The forum examined the benefits and costs of energy efficiency, distributed generation and load management. It also discussed the potential of distributed energy technologies towards delivering a secure, flexible energy supply more cost effectively with lower greenhouse intensity.

The Intelligent Grid Research Program is a three-year research collaboration between the CSIRO and some leading Australian universities.

The outcomes of this program will help government and industry to address the barriers to effective uptake of distributed generation in Australia.

Many precinct-based approaches to energy supply may utilise co-generation to achieve a lower carbon footprint. 

Sustainability Victoria is working with some of these proponents on key projects such as Zero Emission Neighbourhoods and Smart Energy Zones to evaluate the economics of distributed generation in this regard.

Presentations made at the iGrid forum can be viewed at the iGrid web page.

For information on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods and Smart Energy Zones visit the webpages.