Smart Grid, Smart City – Australia’s first commercial-scale smart grid will be based in Newcastle, New South Wales, at a cost of $100 million to taxpayers.
The Smart Grid, Smart City project is an Australian Government initiative to trial the use of ‘smart grid’ technology to reduce the costs of running the electrical grid. EnergyAustralia is the preferred applicant under the Australian Government’s National Energy Efficiency Initiative – Smart Grid, Smart City and will be rolling out the trial in Newcastle, with smaller scale trials also being run in Newington, Sydney’s CBD, Ku-ring-gai and Scone.
The Australian Government through the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has committed up to $100 million for the Smart Grid, Smart City trial in order to better inform future decisions by government, electricity providers, technology suppliers and consumers as Australia’s electricity demand grows and smart grids are adopted across Australia.
A smart grid is a modernised electricity grid that efficiently manages electricity supply and demand. Our current electricity system is like an old car. It works well but isn’t very efficient and is sometimes unreliable. Like a modern car, a smart grid makes the electricity system work smarter and better; it conducts regular checks to see what needs attention and reduces running costs in the long term; and it includes active automated systems that can respond to changing conditions and emergency situations.
The Smart Grid, Smart City demonstration project will deploy a live, integrated, smart grid of commercial size and scope in the Newcastle area, with parts of the trial also conducted in Newington, Sydney’s CBD, Ku-ring-gai and Scone. The location of Smart Grid, Smart City will provide a reasonable representation of the wider grid to produce credible results that can inform . The demonstration area includes urban, suburban, and rural areas and contains diverse network, geographic, climatic and customer characteristics.
