You don't have to live in the dark to be energy efficient

Gone are the days when to be an energy efficient warrior, you had to run around the house to turn off everything then sit in the dark to save money.  Modern homes rely on modern day appliances to carry out all manner of household tasks that used to be done manually.  We couldn’t imagine going back to the age of the good old wringer washing machine of the 50’s, if you even know what that is?

No these days with our need for instant gratification and time saving devices energy use and prices have skyrocketed to the point we now want to save ourselves money.  Well fortunately you don’t have to revert back to the good old days or jeopardise your lifestyle for energy efficiency.

Understand what you are using and when!

First we need to understand usage, if you know what your are using and when, it would be easier to control loads to coincide when energy demand is at its lowest.  Especially if you have solar, why pay more for the electricity you use than what you are getting rebated for? Feed in tariffs (FIT) are very low compared to the amount your pay per kilowatt.  Solar PV could be better utilised to run appliances during the day so you are not paying for them to run at night when you are paying top dollar for the privilege of convenience. The best way to manage your home energy eco-system is to observe what is being used and when and how this can be better managed.

Enter: the Home energy management system

What is this going to achieve you might ask? Scheduling and automating your appliances manually is a lot of hard work and you are probably not home during the day to do this.  A good Home Energy Management System will take control for you, by scheduling appliances to run at the most optimal time of day and automate it all for you, to reduce overall energy use with no affect on your lifestyle.

A good system will: 

• Monitor household energy usage
• Identify energy-draining appliances
• Notify you to faults in real-time
• Monitor solar generation
• Automate to appliances at optimal times
• Easily manage and control appliances remotely
• Save you real money on your energy costs 

Let gswitch take control so you can relax and get on with life

Gswitch will do all of the above and more! Having a Gswitch installed unlocks the door to new energy tariffs not offered to homes that are not compliant with new standards. Gswitch is the only HEMS that is compliant with AUS/NZ Standard 4755.3 which allows Gswitch to control appliances through the IoT.  With new tariffs on the way you can be future ready and maximise savings now without having to wait.  Not only can you log in remotely but you can set up your own schedules to better suit your lifestyle.  Gswitch will simply work in the background and go about the job of saving you money.

Enrich Your Lifestyle with a Gswitch

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Everything you need to know about wholesale electricity pricing

With the introduction of new electricity tariffs due in July of 2020, including the new Wholesale Electricity Pricing, it’s time to understand what it’s all about. The electricity chain can be very confusing as can your bill with all the separate charges, here is a rundown of how the chain operates and who is responsible for each link in the chain. 

How are wholesale electricity prices determined

Electricity production is matched to electricity consumption, and spare generating capacity is always kept in reserve in case it’s needed. The current energy price then can be calculated. Electricity production is also subject to transmission limitations so that the network is not overloaded.

Within this market, prices are determined every five minutes and averaged over each half hour; generators bid how much electricity they are prepared to sell to retailers and at what price for each five-minute interval. 

Starting from the lowest priced bid, generator bids are accepted by the market operator (AEMO) until the point where there is enough supply to meet demand. The price paid for all electricity in each interval is that of the highest bid accepted

To pay generators, AEMO must recover costs from customers. Most customers don’t participate directly in the NEM, so they purchase their electricity through a retailer. Customers pay the retailers a commercial tariff, and retailers manage customers’ energy purchases, including paying AEMO the spot price.

What are our power bills made up of?

When you pay your retailer for electricity, this is – on average – what you’re paying for:

• 51% Network costs – the cost of building and maintaining poles, wires, meter readers and other items in the distribution network.
• 20% Wholesale costs – the cost your retailer pays for your wholesale electricity.
• 9% Carbon price – the cost passed on by fossil-fuel generators for their carbon emissions.
• 4% Environmental schemes – your retailer’s contribution to compulsory Federal and State Government environmental schemes.
• 16% Retail services – what you pay your retailer for retail services and customer service.

*Averages are from the Commonwealth Treasury. Individual bills may vary.

About the National Electricity Market (NEM)

The NEM is a wholesale electricity market in which generators sell electricity and retailers buy it to on-sell to consumers. There are over 100 generators and retailers participating in the market, so it’s highly competitive and therefore an efficient way of maintaining relatively competitive electricity prices in the wholesale market. The majority of Australian states get their power straight from the NEM.  

NEM FACTS

• The National Electricity Market (NEM) incorporates around 40,000 km of transmission lines and cables.
• It supplies about 200 terawatt hours of electricity to businesses and households each year.
• It supplies around 9 million customers.
• It has a total electricity generating capacity of almost 54,421 MW (as at December 2017).
• $16.6 billion was traded in the NEM in the financial year 2016–17.
• Strategic reserves of demand and generation resources of more than 1000 MW for 2017-18.

The NEM commenced operation as wholesale spot market in December 1998. It interconnects five regional market jurisdictions – Queensland, New South Wales (including the Australian Capital Territory), Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. Western Australia and the Northern Territory are not connected to the NEM.

The NEM involves wholesale generation that is transported via high voltage transmission lines from generators to large industrial energy users and to local electricity distributors in each region, which deliver it to homes and businesses.

The transport of electricity from generators to consumers is facilitated through a ‘pool’, or spot market, where the output from all generators is aggregated and scheduled at five-minute intervals to meet demand.

*SOURCE: https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/about-the-national-electricity-market-nem

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WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL POWER PLANT?

The market changes, the power-plants have to follow: Global energy markets are facing major changes. We move from a model with centralized electricity generation in power plants operated by large utilities towards a mix of decentralized and often renewable energy production in small facilities. Those small scale plants are typically owned by small companies or households, who become ‘prosumers’: consumer and producer at the same time.

We experience a true paradigm shift. The further penetration of renewable energy generation challenges the conventional way of operating our electricity system. Business models have to be reinvented and our grids redesigned. The variability of renewable sources like sun and wind do not necessarily endanger the system balance as long as they are dealt with appropriately. And that is exactly where a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) comes in.

One single unit cannot transition our energy system single-handedly. But joining forces, renewable energy producers can really make a change. At the end of the 1990s, a time when the power markets started to liberalize, the first concepts for Virtual Power Plants were born – but mostly only in theory. Computer and network technology at the time and the prevailing regulatory conditions were not yet well suited for projects to take shape at the necessary scale for a systemic and economic development of a Virtual Power Plant.

​THE VPP IN A NUTSHELL

In a Virtual Power Plant, decentralized units in a power network are linked and operated by a single, centralized control system. Those units can be either power producers (e.g. wind, biogas, solar, CHP, or hydro power plants), power storage units, power consumers or power-to-X plants (such as power-to-heat and power-to-gas). When integrated into a Virtual Power Plant, the power and flexibility of the aggregated assets can be traded collectively. Thus, even small units get access to the lucrative markets (like the market for balancing reserve) that they would not be able to enter individually. Any decentralized unit that consumes, stores, or produces electricity can become a part of a Virtual Power Plant.

Additionally to operating every individual asset in the Virtual Power Plant, the central control system uses a special algorithm to adjust to balancing reserve commands from transmission system operators and to grid conditions – just as a larger, conventional power plant does. Furthermore, the Virtual Power Plant can react quickly and efficiently when it comes to trading electricity, thus adjusting plant operations according to price signals from the power exchanges.

Content gathered from: https://www.next-kraftwerke.com/knowledge/what-is-a-virtual-power-plant

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$50 million dollars. This is the cost to all South Australian consumers, just to buy back power from big companies to ensure the state wide blackouts experienced in recent times don’t happen again.

“Energy users paid $50 million in total to buy back power from major manufacturers, so as to keep the lights on in Victoria and South Australia on two occasions in the past three months.

The Australian has learned that the “Australian Energy Market Operator” (AEMO) was forced to activate its “reliability and emergency reserve trader” mechanism on November 30 and January 19, as supplies to retail customers came under threat.

The $50m price tag includes the cost of signing up businesses, standby fees and activation payments.  Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s office confirmed.”.

The Australian: 12:00AM February 12, 2018. Ben Packham, Political reporter Canberra

Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trade scheme

To ensure adequate “demand response” and energy reserves throughout the summer period, AEMO has gained access to an additional 1100 megawatts through a program called the Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trade scheme.

This scheme pays companies to turn down electricity usage and restrict its operations for an hour or two. It also provides the option of adjusting working hours outside periods of peak electricity demand.

Could this be the answer to stop the crippling power outages SA has experienced over recent times?

So, are renewables the answer to this problem?

Is paying industry to shut down to find a power shortfall the answer to reducing the peak demand issue?

How do we reduce peak demand and stop the need to pay these big companies in the first place?

Is there a need to bring online idle power plants for short periods of time to compensate for peak demand?

Enter Demand Response.

What is the reason Demand Response is not being embraced by the generation system or retailers?

It all seems to come down to a reduction of profit margins for the generation suppliers and the energy retailers. “The Australian” has an easy to read and very good article on this subject. They surmise, that due to the high energy prices at peak times the “gentailer” is profiting greatly from selling power to consumers at highly inflated prices. Therefore introducing Demand Response (DR)  would reduce the price they can sell energy to the consumer.

“Shameless”: Cheap energy option for consumers still being buried

“In the long term, such a gentailer may have an incentive not to engage in activities that reduce spot prices (like wholesale demand response) … and that all of these factors are hindering innovation on the demand side, to the detriment of consumers.”

(Gentailer. The term ‘gentailer’ or gen-tailer is a portmanteau word combining the terms generator and retailer, i.e. gen-tailer. This is a reference to the vertical integration of companies operating in the NEM, where generators own a retail arm.)

“Despite a theoretical ‘efficient incentive’ to pursue wholesale DR, too few retailers are doing so.  Innovation and competition are being stifled as a result,”

By Giles Parkinson on 16 February 2018

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The Premier has made it clear that green energy, particularly solar, is crucial to the government’s ongoing plans for meeting the state’s energy needs.

Premier Palaszczuk said the trial would ensure that Queensland would remain a leader in solar technology with the government setting a goal of “one million rooftops, or 3,000 MWs of solar PV capacity in Queensland by 2020.”
She added that “the emergence of ‘Battery Energy Storage Systems’ will play a key role in achieving that goal.”

Queensland boasts one of the highest rates of household solar panel systems in the world, although uptake in recent years has been inhibited by a dramatic cut in the rate consumers are paid for power that they return to the grid.
The commercial release of the Powerwall this year is widely expected to drive popular take-up of a system that at best would supply about seven hours of nightly power for televisions, air-conditioning and other appliances.
However, the cost of solar batteries remains a key barrier for the fledgling industry in Australia. Estimated time taken to recover an investment in a Powerwall, which can range from about $10,000 for a household already with solar panels to $17,300 for an entirely new system –  is between 17 to 26 years.

excerpts from – Guardian News and Media Limited

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