Research and Markets: Australia - Smart Grid Market

DUBLIN--(Business Wire)--
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/284736/australia_smart) has
announced the addition of the "Australia - Smart Grid Market" report to their
offering.

Australia - Smart Grid Market provides policy and strategy analysis as well
comprehensive market overviews on the electricity utility market and the added
smart grid eco system that is rapidly developing around it.

The report reveals that the Australian electricity market will undergo a massive
transformation over the next decade. The transformation will be caused by
environmental and climate change developments, as well as the fact that
production of fossil fuels has reached its peak due to unprecedented demand.
This will result in significant price increases which will accelerate the
development of alternative energy resources.

The electricity industry is therefore on the eve of the most important overhaul
in its existence. It is one of the last industries to face digitalisation - this
is essential to manage the above mentioned pressures.

Furthermore, with higher end-user energy prices, customers will become more
vocal and will need better ways to manage their own energy use and their carbon
footprint. All of this leads to developments around intelligent electricity
infrastructure or smart grids. These developments will bring with them enormous
challenges, but also untold new business opportunities. Our report provides
general background information on the electricity utilities market, focussing on
the communications aspects.

While privatisation will assist companies to be better prepared for these
developments, major government policy initiatives are required to give clear
direction to the market.

Smart grids support the delivery of electricity to consumers using digital
communications technology to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The next few
years will be a crunch years for smart grids. Fortunately the implementation of
the government's smart meter project, planned for 2007 has been delayed till
2009, enabling the utilities involved to review their plans, while at the same
time allowing for a national review of the regulatory regime. This needs to be
changed so that utilities will be encouraged to invest in smart grids rather
than just in smart meters. Victoria took the leadership in smart meters and that
made many utilities also focus on the underlying infrastructure; building on
this we will start seeing the first smart grids arriving in Australia in 2009.

The major players building smart grids in Australia are mostly large energy
retailers and producers supported by IT and telecommunications firms. Country
Energy and EnergyAustralia are perhaps the most active in this area. The period
over 2009 and 2010 is likely to see significant development by firms relating to
smart grids driven by government initiatives.

Slowly some of the CO2 policies such as the Cap and Trade system as well as
policies in relation to renewable energy started to become clearer. Intensive
lobbying aimed at risk aversion rather than at looking towards new
opportunities, is making it more difficult to drive changes through new
technologies for renewable energy and for smart grids. It could well be that in
the end, clean energy policies driven by photovoltaics are going to be the
catalyst for the development of smart grids.

Utilising the momentum of this development the government has earmarked a $100
million investment in a smart grid demonstration project which will be linked to
the National Broadband Network initiative in Australia.

This is a significant shift away from the smart meter debate which originated in
2004. This initiative was around the utilities' need to be able to capture
electricity usage in 30-minute intervals. This enables differential pricing by
time-of-day and enables utilities to discourage certain types of
'non-time-critical' use during periods of high demand. Reducing peaks has a
major impact on electricity generation costs - alleviating the need for new
power plants and cutting down on damaging greenhouse emissions. However, based
on the latest environmental policies, the debate needs to be shifted to smart
grids.

Key highlights:

In 2009 new business models are beginning to emerge as the players entering the
smart grid space begin to seriously take note.

* The market is shifting from a focus on energy savings to one on facilitating
the feed in and the management of renewable energy.
* This is closely linked to the rapid developments in photovoltaic technologies.

* The government is supporting this with a $100 million trans-sector demo
project which involves the Departments of the Environment, Energy and Broadband.

* Until recently the market was stuck within the rather narrow context of smart
meters. Good progress has been made, with Victoria now leading this development.

* Utilities are also involved in the NBN and in particular plans to invest $250
million in the backbone network for this project.
* Country Energy is set two launch two large scale smart grid projects in 2009.
Most other utilities are now at least looking at pilot projects.

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may
not be for the current year.

Key Topics Covered:

* Smart Grids and the Communications Revolution
* Where Energy Meets Comms
* Energy & Environmental Issues
* Climate Change and Photovoltaics
* Electricity Utilities Markets
* Smart Grids Market Overview
* Smart Cities, Buildings & Communities
* Glossary of Abbreviations

For more information visit
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/284736/australia_smart

Laura Wood
Senior Manager
press@researchandmarkets.com
Fax from USA: 646-607-1907
Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716

Copyright Business Wire 2009