Although consumers and politicians often blame rising electricity prices on the up-front costs of researching and using more sustainable energy, a new article by Professor Ross Garnaut indicates this is a small factor in driving energy costs up. Research performed by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) supports the recently published work by Professor Garnaut’s Climate Change Review for the Australian government.
The problem, they argue, is that Australia’s current centralised power grid has been designed to make sure it can handle peak electricity loads, and thus tends to be dependent on large power supplies. CSIRO and Professor Garnaut agree that a smaller scale, better distributed smart grid can help reduce electricity costs and balance the use of renewable energy like wind and solar inputs with the need for non-renewable energy sources like coal or gas. The smart grid technology enables network savings and can allow consumers to be more energy efficient if they are given access to differential pricing and smart meters, as Professor Garnaut recommends.
One of the primary concerns that utilities must deal with when implementing sustainable energy inputs is the inability to control it. What if, for example, there is less collectable solar energy than expected? CSIRO researchers understand this problem and have been looking at ways to balance the controllable energy sources with those that are not easily controllable. In a similar fashion, they have begun an Electric Driveways project which analyses the battery charging of electric vehicles for its impact on electrical grids. They are looking to assess how the battery charging and discharging can be balanced to better distribute off-peak and peak electricity loads.
With the research under way focused on methods of reducing electricity costs, it becomes clear that a re-vamp of the current electrical grid will be necessary to reduce costs and better integrate renewable energy sources.
