A consortium led by EnergyAustralia has been named the successful bidder in the Federal Government’s $100 million smart-grid, smart-city project – and plans, among other things to make Newcastle Australia’s first smart city.
A consortium led by EnergyAustralia has been named the successful bidder in the Federal Government’s $100 million smart-grid, smart-city project – and plans, among other things to make Newcastle Australia’s first smart city.
Other parts of the $100 million two-year trial will be conducted in Scone, Homebush, Ku-ring-gai and the Sydney CBD – all in NSW.
Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Minister Penny Wong announced the winning bid yesterday. The successful consortium also includes CSIRO, IBM Australia, AGL, GE Energy, TransGrid, Newcastle City Council and the NSW Government.
EnergyAustralia MD George Maltabarrow said that as part of the grid, new generation smart meters would be installed in 50,000 homes at five sites in Newcastle, Scone, the Sydney CBD, Ku-ring-gai and Newington.
Around 15,000 households would become “smart homes” to trial in-house displays and Web sites that track electricity and water use, costs and CO2 emissions, he said.
“Households in Scone will become virtual green power stations in battery storage trials, allowing them to help power local streets,” EnergyAustralia said.
EnergyAustralia claims it has in fact been building a smartgrid since 2006. It has rolled out 800km of fibreoptic cable, installed hundreds of communications switches and deployed carrier-grade Internet Protocol (IP) technology to connect more than 200 key substations and depots, and is installing s 12,000 monitoring devices throughout its network.
Some 4000 smart meters with communications have been installed and a 4G wireless comms network will eventually connect up to 2 million devices on the grid.
Communications industry guru Paul Budde who helped kickstart the smartgrid project last night hailed the awarding of the contract as “great news”.
The two-year smart-grid trial will see 1000 households in Newington and Silverwater, NSW, reduce utility bills and carbon impact, EnergyAustralia says.
Householders will be able to see a minute-by-minute picture of their energy and water use; turn appliances on and off remotely using iPhones and Web sites; and compare energy use through neighbourhood competitions, the utility says.
A “smart home” is also being fitted out in Newington to test the latest energy and water efficient appliances and how renewable energy interacts with the grid, it said.
