Australia’s energy landscape has shifted dramatically with major changes in technology, customer behaviour and regulation. Add to that the challenges of renewable integration and demand management. ABB is continuing to drive this critical conversation through its partnership with the Committee of Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) and ongoing support of their Energy Series in 2018
Today’s discussion at CEDA’s Energy Series event in Melbourne focused on the innovation the Energy industry is seeing today and the innovative technology being used in other countries around the world. With a strong panel of speakers including Tony Fullelove, Program Director, Net Zero Initiative and Microgrid Project at Monash University; James Gerraty, Head of Telstra Energy; and Anna Skarbek, Chief Executive Officer of ClimateWorks Australia.
The speakers explored the growing opportunities for businesses to take control of their energy needs, implement new energy technologies and accelerate their sustainability goals. One of the technologies spoken about is Microgrid technology.
Microgrids are a well-proven, innovative solution that enable the seamless integration of multiple and different distributed generators into a single distribution system. Depending on the requirements of the site, power sources can be across solar, wind, wave, main grid or diesel generation supply as well as battery energy storage.ABB in Australia pioneered this technology, that has been deployed locally and in projects all around the world.
“Microgrid technology can harness renewable energy from solar, wind or wave to reduce fuel dependencies without compromising an operations power availability, stability or quality,” Simon deBell, ABB Australia’s Business Development Manager explained.“With an increase in the uptake of cost-effective renewable energy, microgrid technology allows more operations to look at renewable off-grid solutions to help lower carbon emissions.
Most recently, ABB deployed a microgrid with large battery energy storage to support a gas-fired power station in Western Australia to optimise and automate its operations, increase energy efficiency, reduce fossil fuel consumption and enable uninterrupted power supply from Alinta Energy’s Newman Power Station.
ABB is also supplying a microgrid solution to the Energy Storage for Commercial Renewable Integration (ESCRI) project, which will provide a more secure power supply in an area that has high renewable penetration into the grid. The solution will connect an ABB Ability PowerStore™ 30 megawatt (MW) battery energy storage solution to the Electranet transmission system enabling the value stacking of storage in regulated energy market.
ABB has a long history and a rich heritage of technology innovation. We invest approximately $1.5 billion US dollars a year into research and development projects looking to increase energy efficiency, reliability and productivity for our industrial, utility and infrastructure customers.
For more information about CEDA’s Energy Series, visit their website.
