WMAC Cloud Limited

Residential hot water represents the potential of a 22GWhr store of energy. There are 2.2 million households in New Zealand. Over the next 20 years, residential hot water will become 100% electric. This is infrastructure Kiwis households have already paid for or will pay for when they replace their gas hot water. 2.2 million 180 lt hot water cylinders is 20 GWHr of daily available moveable storage. Being able to move and spread this load will have significant benefits for the network and consumers. This energy storage will enable us to increase the utilisation of solar and wind generation and will lower the cost of electricity to every household.

Comcom's announcement two weeks ago that it has approved a line fee increase for the average household of $15/month starting July 2025.  They also approved another $5 per year for the next 4 years. The average power bill will increase by $35/month by 2028 just for the right to a connection. This was substantially less than Transpower and some EDBs asked for. These increases will fund replacement and upgrades that are needed for growth in demand through population growth and electrification. No additional allowance has been made to encourage smarter use of our existing assets. It just funds the replacement and upgrades. Electricity Lines and Transmission Charges Back to hot water: New Zealand has controlled residential hot water through the Ripple Control for over 60 years. However, over the last 30 years, partly because of the lack of direction from regulators and the deregulation of the electricity market in the early 90s, Fewer than 60% of households have functioning ripple control.  Instant gas hot water has become very popular, and electricity retailers have promoted flat-rate contracts and disabled the ripple relays. The industry understands the capability of hot water control. Yet, even today, the industry has no plans or efforts to utilise hot water capability except for the grid operator's benefit in emergencies. EECA-Research-papers-NZ-Ripple-Control-of-Hot-Water.pdf

Flexibility will allow us to utilise better our electrical assets, which is critical as we electrify. The electricity network has been built for 200 hours on the 100 coldest days of the year. Outside of these hours, there is available capacity to address much of our early stages of electrification. Solar and Wind do not conform to our traditional electricity consumption profiles.  The utilisation of Solar and Wind will drastically improve with the increased availability of flexible loads. These loads will respond to and utilise solar and wind generation variability.  Otherwise, much of the potential generation will be lost. Let’s use residential hot water (RHW) as an example: Controlling residential hot water will benefit both the customer and the electrical network. Traditionally, RHW is charged straight after use, this is often in the morning and evening peaks. When hot water heats, it does not matter as long as we get hot showers. So, when hot water is heated, it can be at times of low demand or excess generation. Using off-peak power will save customers money, soak up excess solar energy, which otherwise would have gone to waste, and substantially reduce peak loads.  This will lower individual power bills, reduce pressure on the wholesale electricity markets, reducing the upward pressure of pressure on our power bills. Moving residential hot water heating to off-peak and with a 10c difference in peak and off-peak rates will save 25 to 30c on every shower. For a household that has 2 showers in the morning and 2 in the late afternoon, the annual saving could amount to $400/year. Moving 15% of peak load to off-peak times will result in significant investment savings that will reduce electricity delivery costs.  The better we can flatten the demand curve and match loads to generation, the lower the cost of electricity will be to all customers.

Flexibility is so much more: https://lnkd.in/gBx3g2Wa With the cold snap this month, the conversation and debate are heated around functional markets and reactive solutions, like Demand Response. Turning loads off as a means to keep the national grid from failing is essential. But this is a last resort action to avoid wide-scale blackouts. I think it's important that I explain an alternative solution and discuss how flexibility goes way beyond a last resort action. Large scale flexibility will offer the same outcomes as Demand Response, however, in a manner that has universal benefits to all consumers. Think of Flexibility as a proactive and dynamic concept, with multiple priorities. Examples of these priorities could be: ·      Reducing the cost of your energy bill without affecting consumer constraints ·      Maximise the utilisation of your Solar or batteries (DER) ·      Protecting local and national grid assets while increasing asset utilisation ·      Saving the nation billions of dollars on over building for 200 hours a year, and building a 21st-century grid rather than  the currently proposed 20th century solutions Next week, I will start talking about these points, starting with low energy bills.