New Zealand's energy system faces supply and demand challenges, impacting consumers with rising power bills. Photo / NZME
New Zealand's energy system faces supply and demand challenges, impacting consumers with rising power bills. Photo / NZME
Opinion by Neil Williams
Neil Williams is CEO of data firm Bluecurrent, jointly owned by Vector and QIC
THE FACTS
New Zealand’s energy system faces challenges, requiring new generation and smarter energy management.
Dynamic load control technology can smooth energy demand, saving money and reducing grid strain.
Households could collectively save $300 million annually with smart hot water management and energy deals.
When it comes to the state of New Zealand’s electricity system right now, you might say we’re all in hot water.
That’s true in a literal sense – our daily shower, or the dishes if it’s your turn to wash after dinner, are both challenging exercises without enoughhot water.
In another sense, “hot water” also points to the challenges New Zealand’s energy system is facing right now and what’s needed to address them.
The balance between supply and demand is certainly a hot issue, one that’s exercising political decision-makers, officials, commentators, economists – with retail customers on the end of what can seem like ever-increasing power bills.
Energy Minister Simeon Brown speaks at a public announcement. With New Zealand's energy system under pressure, dynamic load control saves money and reduces demand. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Grid operator Transpower, and others too, have warned that New Zealand needs a lot of new generation to come on tap in the coming decades, especially given the longer-term challenges posed by New Zealand’s transition to a low-carbon economy, in which electricity will increasingly replace fossil fuel.
However, we all know this new generation capacity will take time to come on-stream.
Fortunately, the technology exists right now to ensure we can all become much more savvy guardians of energy.
Dynamic load control is a key example of this technology. Dynamic load control is a fancy term that means, in essence, smoothing the load on the energy system and helping it to flex, especially at times of high demand.
It can keep our hot water hot by heating it at times when the system is under less strain – and when it’s much cheaper to generate electricity in the first place.
Commentators such as Bernard Hickey have likened the household hot water cylinder to “the hidden battery in your home” – one in each house or apartment, adding up to a vast network of hot water “batteries” across New Zealand.
With dynamic load control guiding the process, the energy needed to charge these “batteries” can be shifted to different times of the day, away from the usual peak period when overall demand is at its highest and the grid is under the most strain, especially on a windless winter day when our hydro lakes might also be low, as they were last year.
Dynamic load control technology can smooth energy demand, saving money and reducing strain on the grid.
This clever technology, available and being used right now, can make a big difference overall.
How big?
According to energy commentators Stephen Batson and David Reeve, the amount of potential demand that can be shifted through smart hot water management is about the same size as the generation delivered by the entire Huntly Power Station.
Innovative companies like Bluecurrent are helping us to manage, track and adjust our power usage in new ways, thanks to dynamic load control-capable smart electricity meters and sophisticated algorithms.
Some energy retailers in New Zealand, including Mercury and Meridian, have already signed up to use this technology, enabling them to offer smarter energy deals for their customers. Hickey has also noted households could make collective savings of about $300 million annually through lower electricity bills. That’s hardly small change amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Households could collectively save $300 million annually with this technology, which is already used by some electricity retailers. Photo / Mark Mitchell
More can be done, and must be done, given the considerable strains on our energy system for the foreseeable future.
Dynamic load control technology is proven, available, reliable and accurate. It’s already benefiting the energy retailers and network companies who’ve adopted it, and their customers too.
