It’s time for a plug-in revolution
Alan Pears reports for Renew Economy:
The recently released report of the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into ‘Renewable and Affordable Energy for Apartments’ provides extensive evidence for the need to switch our focus from grid-sourced energy supply and to consumer-side measures and the plug-in revolution.
The proposed processes outlined by the report involve cumbersome and expensive measures. It takes a long time to upgrade network and building-level electricity infrastructure.
We don’t have enough electricians. It involves owners corporations and managers, dealing with remote apartment owners, split incentives and other complications. And there is much less solar generation in winter, when transition from gas is expected to increase already high amounts of potentially expensive electricity in extreme weather.
Of course, we should try to accelerate the actions proposed in the report for both existing and new apartment buildings and other renters, including many small businesses. But they will be slow and costly.
We must aggressively focus on consumer-side of the meter efficiency, energy storage and smart management. This is the ‘plug-in revolution’ I have been advocating for some time.
This goes far beyond balcony solar and building or apartment-level batteries, and involves appliances as well as building thermal performance. It also requires some significant, but straightforward technology innovation.
To understand how and why this is needed, we have to start at the point of electricity consumption.
The parliamentary report highlights the fragility of electricity supply to many older apartments. Some have had to limit apartment consumption to less than 25 amperes of current when transitioning from gas – equivalent to a maximum peak limit of 5.75 kilowatts of power per apartment.
New homes typically have over 60 Amp supply and many even have 3-phase power. So this sounds like a serious barrier. This must be seen in context.
On one hand, if you want to install an induction cooker, it may be rated at a maximum demand of 10 kilowatts, well above the available maximum. This flags a need for a major power supply upgrade. But that need not be the situation.
If the maximum available 25 amp capacity was used continuously over 24 hours, it could deliver around 140 kilowatt-hours per day. A typical all electric home uses 15 to 25 kilowatt-hours per day.
Of course, in winter and summer extremes daily consumption might rise to 40 kWh/day or, for inefficient high consumers, maybe 100 kWh/day – still well within that daily supply capacity. In principle, a battery behind the meter could smooth this demand within present wiring limits.
Image Credit: Ikea
