Integrate To Zero

As we saw in South Australia in 2016, during the Black Summer bushfires and in Broken Hill last month, the electricity system in Australia is both a large source of carbon emissions and highly vulnerable to extreme weather events which are becoming more and more frequent. Both challenges can be partially mitigated by speeding up our adoption of and integration of Distributed Energy Resources #DER into the #electricity system. At the IEEE PES Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference https://lnkd.in/gy5CNu5q yesterday I spoke about the benefits of DER; the basic changes that are needed to the engineering and regulation of the system to support DER integration; one advance change where DER can lower the costs of the power system (DER providing distribution network support services), and the vital role of DER in resilience. Conclusion: the speed of the revolution in #distribution depends on #engineers. Watch this space for an forthcoming Engineers Australia essay on this topic. Thanks to Gregor Verbic and the conference committee for the invitation to give this keynote and to Reza Razzaghi and Mohsen Khorasany who delivered an excellent #DER workshop at the conference. Integrate To Zero, IEEFA Asia Pacific, The Superpower Institute

Another innovative 2-wheeler vehicle-to-grid #V2G case study from Asia: Thanks to a stranger on twitter who alerted me to this great story which shows that it's not only cars, buses or truck batteries-on-wheels that can be part of a resilient electricity system. Gogoro provides 12,500 battery-swap stations for electric 2-wheelers - scooters, mopeds, and bikes - across Taiwan. Currently 1,000 of these stations can be combined to act as a Distributed or Virtual Power Plant (#VPP) supporting grid stability, for example, if an earthquake strikes. (In the Australian case, this would be a coal-fired power station outage). So far, Taiwanese VPPs have a total capacity of 1,350 MW and this will only grow, including due to Enel X's work with Gogoro. In case the article is paywalled, this is crucial: "Plus, the entire station doesn’t go dark—Gogoro has a built-in system that decides which or how many batteries in a station stop charging. “We know exactly which batteries to spin down, which station to spin down, how much to spin down,” says Luke. “That was all calculated in real time in the back side of the server.” It can even consolidate the power left in several batteries into one, so a customer who comes in can still leave with a fully charged battery even if the whole system is operating below capacity." In my view, this kind of smart software means that fears about people being left without transport due to V2G are unfounded. Of course the issues of social licence and balance between vehicle owners and grid/network operators' needs can be addressed with careful thought and consumer protection regulation. Integrate To Zero, The Superpower Institute, IEEFA Asia Pacific, Solar Citizens, Parents for Climate, enX consulting, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), Solutions for Our Climate (기후솔루션), Fiona Campbell, Chris Bowen MP, Jenny McAllister, Penny Sharpe, Shane Rattenbury MLA, Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Hon Tom Koutsantonis MP, Mick de Brenni

A significant transformation is underway in the US distributed energy resource (DER) market, which is set to almost double by 2027 concerning 2022. Watch on-demand our 5-year outlook for the US DER market and the factors driving both the growth and market share transformation. https://okt.to/bvVXG9

In Australia people are most familiar with 4-wheeled electric vehicles 🔋🚗 #EVs, but batteries can also be on 2- or 3-wheels in the form of 🔋🚲 bicycles, scooters 🔋🛵, motorbikes 🔋🏍️ and rickshaws 🔋🛺. #Ebikes are the leading electric vehicle worldwide and about 40 million were sold in 2023. Ebikes are also 20 to 35-times more efficient than EVs in terms of km per kWh (https://lnkd.in/eAa9Nyi7) and, I would argue, a lot more fun. But, you may say, you can’t use an electric 2 or 3-wheeler to power your home or the grid. 🔌⚡ Of course, there’s no technical reason why this shouldn’t be possible (see B. Singh and J. Gupta, "A Bidirectional Charging System for Electric Two-Wheelers and Three Wheelers," 2022 IEEE Global Conference on Computing, Power and Communication Technologies (GlobConPT), New Delhi, India, 2022, pp. 1-6, https://lnkd.in/ehuQ-4qw). And I’ve been waiting for news of an innovative company somewhere in the world doing this. In Ho Chi Minh City, Re:Charge (https://lnkd.in/eWM8GvsT) is using Vietnamese-made Dat Bike e-scooters to provide emergency power supply to local businesses when there is a power outage: see article linked below.  There's a lovely video embedded in the article showing how this works and what it means to the people involved. For those interested in the technical details: ·     “Dat Bike e-scooters have up to a 5kWh battery, and can be paired with a 1kW or 2kW inverter to turn them into a 220V power source. ·     These inverters can run for 4 and 2 hours respectively at full load and on a full battery, and are enough to power, for example, the lights and 2 freezers for a small convenience store for 3-4 hours.” I applaud Re:Charge's smarts and creativity and I'm sure we'll see more businesses internationally making the most of the possibilities of bidirectional charging with 2 and 3-wheeled EVs. For more discussion of vehicle-to-X #V2X and vehicle-to-grid #V2G, come along to the Climate Action Week Sydney event this morning 16 May: https://lnkd.in/gc238xi5 or keep an eye out for the recording in a coming UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures post. #innovation #batteriesonwheels #resilience #neverunderestimatethesmallstuff #micromobility Integrate To Zero, Solar Citizens, Parents for Climate, IEEFA Asia Pacific, The Superpower Institute, Scott Dwyer, Emma Cowan, Kriti Nagrath

Another reminder not to underestimate the impact of the 'small stuff'. When combined, #DER distributed energy resources can have a massive impact on global fossil fuel use and help substantially reduce emissions. While #electricbikes and especially #acousticbikes are 'unglamorous solutions' (Marie Claire Brisbois), they can help speed up and lower the costs of decarbonisation - and they are far more fun than #cars, electric or otherwise! Integrate To Zero, IEEFA Asia Pacific, Solar Citizens, Parents for Climate, Fiona Campbell, Bicycle NSW, Jo Haylen, Jenny McAllister, #micromobility, BloombergNEF

Consumers tend to favour reliable and predictable actions and rewards when it comes to flexibility services. This was the finding from our recent report 'Rewarding consumers for energy flexibility: global market highlights', developed in partnership with Integrate To Zero.     The report offers valuable insights into how companies are meeting these preferences, including by providing recurring fixed-rate payments, lump sum upfront rewards, enduring discounts on utility bills, and variable-rate rewards. If you are interested in monitoring the changing landscape of household flexibility services around the world, you’ll find this a valuable resource.   We also discuss the structure of benefits presented to consumers for engaging in energy flexibility and emphasise the need for new policy approaches and tools to create more opportunities. This is accompanied by our insights into the future drivers of the flexibility market evolution.     To read the full report, click here: https://lnkd.in/ergaNXQF