A bright distributed energy future: reflections from All-Energy
Last month I joined participants from all quadrants of the energy industry in Melbourne for the All-Energy conference and exhibition, learning about the latest in energy innovation in Australia. The event lived up to last year’s experience with showcases of innovative utility trials, new energy tech (especially in distributed energy resources) and learnings from new start-ups in the space. There are three key takeaways, from my perspective, that I’d like to share coming out of this year’s All-Energy.
Firstly, the sector writ large are frustrated with the state of energy politics in Australia. From utility execs to rooftop solar installers we’re largely watching the train wreck of failed energy policies in astonishment. Critically, though, it has not affected progress. We continue to develop and build solutions, and the representation at the conference was telling that this is an industry that is thriving.
And this representation isn’t the only indication. The number of utilities around the nation that are developing and trialling truly innovative solutions to some our toughest challenges is impressive. It’s a significant shift from last year’s All-Energy which show-cased trial results from only a handful of utility activities. This year’s event was awash with what utilities are up to — from far north Queensland to Bruny Island in Tasmania and across Western Australia, utilities from every state are actively investigating new energy solutions. It seems that many have embraced the idea that the “utility of the future” looks very different to what we have today. It is heartening to see so many examples of businesses actively seeking ways to evolve their business to thrive in the distributed and customer-centric energy future.
Microgrids emerged as an important theme this year, with informative presentations from Ausnet Services on their Mooroolbark embedded microgrid project in Victoria and Carnegie Clean Energy on their numerous remote microgrid projects, to name just two of many. Microgrids also have a strong position in Nexergy’s vision, something I discussed in the session “Corporate PPAs and Peer-to-Peer energy trading” (see my full slideshare presentation below).
Finally, this year’s event was dominated by innovation in distributed energy resources (DER). Utility scale wind and solar were certainly present but DER was the talk of the town. This is in part because the technology and financial structures for utility scale generation are relatively mature. But with skyrocketing power prices this financial year really affecting the budgets of many consumers we’ve seen exceptional demand for solutions to lowering bills, for which DER is ideal. For residential and commercial/industrial customers alike, rooftop solar is already an economic no-brainer. In the not too distant future energy storage and demand response will follow en masse. The supporting infrastructure and business models required to make the most of controllable DERs are still being developed. This includes approaches such as local energy trading, but also the low cost internet of things (IoT) devices which are being developed and refined, which need to be trusted by a sector which has extremely stringent reliability standards.
Given our experience over the past two years, we’re looking forward to seeing you at All-Energy again in 2018!
Posted by Darius Salgo, CEO of Nexergy.
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