smart grids - News, Features, and Slideshows

Scarce resources, an ever-growing population, natural disasters and many other factors mean we need to be smart about the way we manage the environments we live in.

ICT spending within the utility sector in Australia is forecast to grow by five-year compound annual growth rate of of 2.3 per cent to more than $1.9 billion in 2015, according to IDC's Utilities Market Forecast and Analysis report.

New South Wales energy utility Ausgrid is exploring customer rebates and reduced tariffs based on the differing energy saving technologies deployed at 50,000 homes slated for the Federal Government’s $100 million Smart Grid, Smart City project.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has added an extra session of its newly introduced smart grid short course in an effort to build as skills base of engineers in an area of increasing demand.

Houses in the Newcastle and Scone regions of NSW have been selected to trial battery-powered “micro-grid” which can increase energy efficiency and reduce the impact of outages.

Adding new layers for both improved communications and business-focused data analysis may add pressure to already pressured CIOs, but information executives aren’t the only ones staring down organisational change as a result of the industry’s new information-driven dynamics.

Smart meters have a way to go. The recent 2010 Australian Smart Grid Study, a survey of 13 Australian utilities by sector consultancy Logica, showed an average self-reported maturity rating of just 2.14 on a scale of 1 to 5, and communications networks to support them rated 2.80.

Like any entrepreneur, Andrew Dyer is excited about the possibilities for his clean-energy venture, BrightSource Energy. The company, of which he is a director, is this year partnering with energy giant Chevron to cover 1000 acres of the US desert with 4000 mirrors that reflect sunlight onto three boilers mounted atop each of three 100 metre towers.