The Energy Networks Association (ENA) Chief Executive Officer John Bradley has said an overhaul of Australian energy standards will be key to the effective integration of distributed energy resources into electricity networks.
The ENA has partnered with the CSIRO as part of its Electricity Network Transformation Roadmap project which has identified the important role that Australian Standards will have in enabling a more dynamic energy system.
Mr Bradley said, “With rapid changes in technology, improvements must be made to the current suite of Australian Standards to leverage the full value of distributed energy resources.
“Australia’s energy transformation is occurring faster than most other countries’ – we need to refresh our industry standards to support innovation and the safe, reliable and efficient delivery of services.”
Standards Australia CEO Dr Bronwyn Evans said supporting innovation is a key goal of Standards Australia.
“In the energy sector, standards play a key role in supporting the connections between technologies, providing consistent frameworks for design and implementation, and ensuring safety,” Dr Evans said.
Mr Bradley said the ENA has asked Standards Australia to facilitate stakeholder feedback to develop a prioritised work plan for improving Australian Standards.
“Energy networks will contribute to the work plan to provide a defined pathway and timeframes for the development and updating of relevant Australian Standards,” Mr Bradley said.
The topics and technologies proposed to be covered by new or updated Australian Standards include distributed generation, grid-side and local energy storage, distributed energy coordination, customer energy management systems, electric vehicles, inverters, supporting technologies, and data frameworks and privacy.
Standards Australia has released a discussion paper, Standards and the Future of Distributed Electricity, for consultation. View the paper here.