Canberra branch

When: Wednesday, 31 May 2017, 7:30 pm

Where: Ian Ross building #31, Australian National University, Corner of North Road and Geology Close, Acton ACT 2601. Click here for a campus map (Building #31 at G4 on North Rd) and here for a Google map.

Speaker: Lawrence McIntosh

Lawrence McIntosh is a senior research consultant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS where he focuses on the challenges of integrating renewable energy sources into the grid. In addition he is founder and project leader of the community solar energy company "Solar Share" in the ACT, as well as being a partner at PV Lab Australia: a solar module testing laboratory.

Subject: Networks Renewed: Using smart home solar to protect our power grids

According to some commentators in industry and the press, high penetration of renewable energy, particularly household solar, could lead to a voltage crisis in the electricity grid. Energy exported from these local generators can drive up the local grid voltage leading to instability in the network.

The "Networks Renewed" project at the Institute for Sustainable Futures is running trials in NSW and Victoria to show that smart inverters on domestic solar power systems can be used for local control of grid voltage rather than having to try to do this at the substation.

Using this approach would turn the perceived problem into a solution in which increasing the penetration of domestic solar into the grid actually improves grid stability.

You can find a summary of the evening's presentation in this article.

Regards,

Andrew Perry

Secretary, ATA Canberra Branch

canberrabranch@ata.org.au

ATA Canberra branch webpage