Thank you to all the attendees of our Smart Grid workshop. Your active participation made the event highly successful and beneficial to all involved. Special thanks must go to Robin Eckermann (representing Smart Grid Australia) for an enlightening and entertaining presentation.

The workshop thanked Minister Garrett for his personal letter of support and encouragement.  

Concern over climate change and our global economic / political environment has lead many future minded companies and organizations explore ‘Smart Grid’ technology as a possible solution to better manage power utility networks.

The workshop explored the future of power system networks and the need for inbuilt ‘intelligence’ to meet future demands of power generation and supply. Powercorp has developed demand side management technology in high penetration wind/diesel systems. These systems incorporate demand side management (Smart Grid) technology to maximize the use of renewable energy.  These systems may prove a valuable microcosm example for the ‘Smart Grid’ concept in the wider mainstream Utility networks.

Outcomes of the day included the sharing of ideas on how Smart Grid technology may be deployed and how possible funding from the Federal and Territory Governments could support the deployment of demonstration projects.

It was agreed that the proposed $100m funding from the Federal Government for the Smart Grid Demonstration program should be considered for several smaller projects rather than the single large project currently planned.