Smart Energy

Overview of initiative

The energy sector is undergoing a transition. It is moving to a world where sustainability, low emissions, affordability and connectivity is paramount to meeting the expectations of the earth and the people in it.  

In Australia, the shift is away from centralised electricity generation and usage to a decentralised way of living; consumers are taking an active (‘smart’) role in controlling how they engage with the energy grid and their own carbon footprint.

This initiative will explore how to integrate smart energy resources into the energy system through standardisation, and how to create synergies that maximise efficiency and reduce costs. 

Challenges

• The world’s energy system is changing rapidly. Current electricity grids were not designed for two-way electricity flows or customer controlled ‘smart’ generation/consumption. 
• The energy sector relies heavily on standards to promote safety. There are limited technical standards on the interoperability of new systems in this transition and there is need for guiding principles on the safety of assets and services both physically and in the cyber world.
• The push towards sustainability and desire to reduce carbon footprints will cause many industries to adopt smart energy principles, such as demand response and sustainable building development. There is a need to coordinate these smart energy technologies to ensure the interoperability of newer systems and the grid.

Why is this important?

Change is happening rapidly and there is a need for the appropriate standards and resources to be in place to provide clarity, confidence, efficiency and cost savings. Standards Australia seeks to be the go-to body for smart energy interoperability standardisation, governance and coordination.

Solutions

• Standards Australia has established a Smart Energy Advisory Group to coordinate and advise on the prioritisation of standards relating to smart energy. This group brings key stakeholders from our energy technical committees as well as key industry and energy market policy bodies together to advance the work of technical standards to support this transition. Smart Energy Advisory Group members are listed below.
• Standards Australia will be developing a position paper that will provide a view of the current standards landscape, within various areas of smart energy. This position paper will also set out a vision for what technical standards are pressing and need to be prioritised.

Smart Energy Advisory Group

Members

• EL-064 Distributed Energy Chair
• EL-062 Smart Energy Chair
• EL-005 Secondary Batteries Chair
• EL-042 Renewable Energy Power Supply Systems & Equipment Co-Chair 
• Australian Energy Market Commission
• Clean Energy Council
• Cross Technical Committee expert
• DEIP Interoperability Steering Committee Chair
• Energy Consumers of Australia