Australia gives green light to first smart grid

Australia's first commercial-scale smart grid was given the go-ahead late yesterday, in a project that the government says will help Australians to save power and connect domestic renewable energy to the grid.

The AU$100m (£46.3m) Smart Grid, Smart City demonstration project will commence later this year in Newcastle and parts of Sydney, running until 2013.

Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong said Smart Grids could give Australian households and businesses the tools to reduce their energy use and energy bills into the future.

"Smart Grids give households the ability to manage their own energy use, because they give consumers information about how much energy they are using and the costs at any time," she said. "Consumers can also use Smart Grids with energy efficient 'smart appliances' that can be set to run on off-peak power."

Households in the Newcastle area will be able to access information online about the amount of energy used at any time in their home, making them more likely to turn off power-hungry appliances and to use power at off peak times.

They will also be able to disable some appliances in their homes remotely via the internet should they wish.

As part of the pilot project a small fleet of electric cars, acquired by the City of Sydney, will also be used to assess the best places to locate plug-in recharge points.

The government estimates that if smart grid applications are adopted throughout Australia they could help cut carbon emission by 3.5 megatonnes a year.

The consortium that won the bid for the project is led by utility EnergyAustralia and also includes CSIRO, IBM Australia, AGL, GE Energy, TransGrid, Newcastle City Council and the NSW Government. It beat bids rival from regional New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

The managing director of Energy Australia, George Maltabarow, said around 400,000 basic first-generation smart meters had already been installed in New So uth Wales since 2006, but the new project would see more advanced smart meters being put into homes and businesses.

"They are essential if we want to de-carbonise electricity networks in Australia,'' he said. "Building a smart grid is the foundation for delivering energy savings in the home that is so fundamental to the carbon pollution reduction scheme.''

The project is the latest in a series of schemes designed to bolster the government's green credentials after it courted controversy back in April by shelving plans for a national emissions trading scheme until at least 2013 after seeing its climate bill repeatedly blocked in the Senate.