Working Groups
Smart Grid Australia Workgroup Policies, Procedures and Guidelines (version 2.0)
apply to the following Working Groups
Intellignet Networking to Support Smart Grid Initiatives (1) - Working Group
Key Considerations and Architectural Guidelines
Objective
The objective of this Working Group is to provide high level guidance to the industry on key considerations and architectural guidelines for Intelligent Networking to support successful deployment of SmartGrid initiatives.
Output
A brief report, akin to a long form White Paper
Value Proposition
The report produced will provide at least three key points of value to the industry:
- Context Considering intelligent Networking for SmartGrid in context of other industry initiatives driving intelligent networking to support a range of services in the home.
- Educational Value to provide Utility industry experts with insight into the potential of Intelligent Networking architectures to support SmartGrid initiatives; and
- A Checklist of considerations for network architects working on specific Utility SmartGrid projects.
Participation
Invitation to SmartGrid members / affiliates to nominate representation, in the first instance. The contributions of Utility Subject Matter Experts will be key to producing a report of value by the industry for the industry.
Milestones
Invitation for Membership November 2008 Convening the Working Group December 2008 Tentative timeframe for Report April 2009.
(1) Here the term SmartGrid Initiatives encompasses such initiatives as Smart Meters, In‐Home Displays and Device Management, Asset LifeCycle Management for the Utility Grid, Utility Workforce Management and so forth.
IN Workgroup Study Topic 2 - Securing The SmartGrid
IN Workgroup Study Topic 3 - SmartMeter to HAN Communications
IN Workgroup - Key Considerations for the use of the NBN Infrastructure of Smart Grid Applications
Policy & Regulatory - Working Group
Objectives:
The Smart Grid Australia Policy and Regulatory Working Group includes any interested members of SGA. The current areas of objectives for this Working Group include:
- helping governments to develop initiatives and programs to drive economic benefit through smart grid to Australia and the industry;
- working with government to address regulatory or policy barriers that inhibit investment in smart grid upgrades to their networks promote the benefits of smart grids.
The Policy and Regulatory Working Group operates by leveraging its wide industry membership to provide a broader focus and perspective to smart grid policy issues.
Currently our activities focussed on the Australian Government's 2009 Budget announcement that it will invest up to $100 million in the New Energy Efficiency Initiative to develop a clean energy smart grid for a population of between 25,000 and 50,000 customers. The plan is for the outcomes of this initiative to help shape a national rollout of smart grid across the whole energy network.
The Nexus between Smart Grids and Fuel & Energy Usage - Robin Eckermann SGA appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Fuels and Energy.
Research Working Group - RWG
The Research Working Group (RWG) will be made up from Universities and CSIRO together with Smart Grid organisations offshore and Utilities / Suppliers where appropriate.
The aim of the working group is to provide support to SGA inresearch questionsand propositions.
Proposed activities include:
- Involve the research community in Australia to form a R&D reference group for SGA.
- Assisting SGA in developing a coherent national research agenda in Smart Grids by:
- Supporting SGA with a wide knowledge base
- Facilitate discussions and reviews of best practice in specialist areas for SGA
- Suggest solutions to problems identified by SGA
- Provide access to R&D specialists
- Gather information from existing Smart Grid organisations ( initially USA and EU) and report where relevant to SGA.
- Assisting SGA to identify the means by which Smart Grid research activity can be appropriately resourced within Australia.
- Running an annual workshop / conference (research focussed).
In general the Smart Grids Research Working Group will act as a forum for research questions and ideas from SGA members and the research community to advise support and inform SGA's decisions.
Update
The SGA Research Working Group (RWG) organised a workshop as an initial effort towards the development of an Australian Smart Grid R&D Road map on 12 August 2009 in Sydney. To set the scene, Terry Jones (as RWG chair), Jeff Lee, Prof Peter Wolfs and Dr Darrell Williamson gave presentations about the state of play and research needs in Australia, Europe and USA. Then twenty four participants representing industry, state government, universities and CSIRO contributed to the brainstorming sessions facilitated by Dr Greg Foliente. The proceedings and outputs from the workshop will be distributed to all participants, and submitted to SGA, by 07 September 2009.
International connections established with researchers in India, Northern Ireland, USA and the Netherlands.
Terry will be attending GridWeek in the US and TPO in the Netherlands at the end of September to establish further links and identify relevant work for AU.
WA Perth workshop being planned by Peter Wolfs in November including further ideas for road mapping research topics.
Smart Grid Australia - Training Study Group - Terms of Reference
Consumer Working Group - CWG
Having now completed the research review phase, we have recently commenced our cross industry interviews to test a series of hypotheses we had previously developed. The intent is to test the different points of view as to what are the anticipated consumer impacts of smart grid implementations in Australia to date. We are keen to incorporate both the cause and effect of those impacts and understand what possible approaches can be made to different consumer segments, including those considered to be disadvantaged. We are conducting interviews with several sources within the industry including Retail, Distribution, Local and National government and Community Advocacy Groups in order to get a balanced view of the issues and possible solutions. We are expecting a diverse range of responses and will have a draft ready for review at the middle to end of September.
Many of our SGA members will be participating in these interviews and we will be collaborating with the SGCC in the US.
Ann Burns Chairperson