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Category Archives: electricity

Grattan Institute urges compensation for higher power bills caused by energy grid ‘gold plating’

Consumers must be compensated for higher bills caused by the excessive “gold-plating” of electricity networks and the value of energy assets should be written down, according to a report out today. The Grattan Institute blames “poor decisions” by governments in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania for driving unnecessary investment in power networks, which has ultimately left consumers footing the bill. In the Down to The Wire report, the Grattan Institute estimates consumers in those three states are being slugged between $100 and $400 more a year as investment outstripped population growth and demand. “Consumers connected to the National Electricity Market are …

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Steven Marshall welcomes Elon Musk and wants to cut energy costs

Incoming South Australian Premier Steven Marshall says cutting energy costs to business and households is a major priority for his new government, with a $200 million inter-connector fund a centrepiece of his plans to deliver cheaper power. Mr Marshall is also getting on the front foot with a proposal for a $100 million household storage battery fund, which would provide means-tested grants of around $2500 to households with solar panels that want to install home storage batteries. It would cover about 40,000 households. Getting the fund up and running is among the projects earmarked for the first 100 days of …

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In Australian first, two schools powered solely by green energy.

Two schools’ classrooms in NSW will be powered solely by renewable energy, taking them off the grid and teaching students about sustainability. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and federal government are providing $370,000 in funding to St Christopher’s Catholic Primary School in Holsworthy and Dapto High School to trial a 100 per cent renewable power and smart technology program in their new classrooms. Known as the Hivve, the modular classrooms – which are fully air-conditioned – integrate solar photovoltaic panels and real-time energy and air quality monitoring to generate energy and control their own usage. According to ARENA, these classrooms will have …

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Is It Time We Upgrade Our Energy Network?

Australia is an exciting place to be right now – changes that previously took 25 years to happen are now happening in five years, and with a customer-led shift in the utility sector to a market in terms with transition. In response, we must find ways to coordinate all the complexity in the market. On the generation side and on the low side, the grids are the glue behind it all. We need grid extension, transitional lines for power transfer, and examples of reinforcement of our distribution grids with a lot of the centralised generations embedded. Increased efficiency in our …

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Rushing to renewable energy targets puts sector’s reputation at risk

The last time an entire state blacked out was on the night the Beatles arrived in Sydney in 1964. So what happened in South Australia last week was rare and the repercussions could be vast. The key question is whether that state’s heavy reliance on wind turbines might have increased the risk of a state-wide blackout. More broadly, the event will supercharge concerns over how renewable energy is being integrated into a national grid that was not designed to cope with it. Wind presents two problems. First, it is intermittent, so all of it has to be backed up by …

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