IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2015 - 94

Islands
Timor Sea

Coral Sea
N.T.
Qld.
W.A.

Australia

S.A.
Perth

N.S.W.
Sydney
Great
Australian
Bight

A.C.T
Vic.
Melbourne

Tas.

0%
1%
2.5%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%+

figure 1. The proportion (%) of residential dwellings that have a PV system across Australia by post code (accessed from
pv-map.apvi.org.au/historical on 10 December 2014).

underlying network costs and benefits
are poorly aligned with tariffs. There are
many energy-efficiency measures that
also reduce overall household consumption while not necessarily reducing peak
demand. Indeed, household demand has
fallen markedly over recent years driven
by factors that include energy-efficiency
programs. And, as noted above, peak
demand in many parts of the Australian
network is driven by air-conditioning. It
has been estimated that the cross subsidy
for households with large air conditioners can be an order of magnitude greater
than cross subsidies for households with
PVs. Meanwhile, the subsidies between
city and rural customers likely dwarf even
these under current tariff arrangements.
So while the networks certainly face
a range of technical and revenue challenges related to PVs, these are just part
of a broader suite of challenges and, let
it be said, opportunities arising from new
distributed technologies including battery
94

ieee power & energy magazine

storage, small trigeneration systems, and
increasingly smart and remotely controllable smart appliances. These are all now
being installed by newly engaged energy
users looking to reduce costs while improving their energy services.
while increasing fixed charges ($/day)
might be seen as a way to insulate DnSPs
from these distributed technologies and
their owners, such charges will certainly
reduce incentives to deploy PVs, energy
efficiency, and smart loads that can help
us save on network expenditure while
also delivering wider economic and environmental benefits. There is also the risk
of some end-users choosing to add storage to their PVs and depart the grid entirely, an unfortunate and likely economically
poor outcome for both such households
and the valuable, and publicly funded, asset they are abandoning.
Instead, we need to establish new business models for DnSPs and other key
stakeholders that facilitate active support

for and integration of appropriate distributed energy options that will assist in meeting
the growing economic, social, and environmental challenges of a clean energy future.
working out what these business models
should be, and the policy and regulatory
framework within which they will reside,
is the work ahead for the industry and other
stakeholders. In this regard, there are growing efforts in some jurisdictions and much
to learn from the experiences of others. A
particularly promising example in Australia is the growing interest of DnSPs serving rural customers to explore distributed
energy options rather than continuing the
usual, often very expensive, service by the
wire. More generally, however, distributed
energy challenges and opportunities will
invariably vary greatly between electricity industries and are changing rapidly so
there will be no "one size fits all always"
solution. It's a difficult journey ahead for
the DnSPs and us all, but one we certainly
believe is worth taking.
p&e
march/april 2015

http://pv-map.apvi.org.au/historical

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2015