Melbourne is hosting the 2017 Power Grid Resilience Summit, with strong emphasis on renewable energy potential.
Driven by last year’s energy blackouts in South Australia, organisers will bring together stakeholders from government, energy companies and major energy users.
Optimising the mix of traditional and renewable energies is high on the agenda.
Organisers expect discussion and debate on renewable energy options, along with innovative storage technologies.
The conference is staged at Melbourne’s Royce Hotel from 22-23 August.
Significant opportunities for renewable debate
Several aspects of sustainable energy production and storage will be discussed during the event.
Two pre-conference workshops on Monday 21 August are:
- Using On-grid storage to better integrate renewables
This will address the challenges energy networks face when integrating batteries into their existing grids.
- Exploring solar PVs as alternative renewables source
While generators are open to energy storage solutions, many are still unsure of all available options.
This workshop addresses:
- Battery storage and backup.
- Tapping into the grid.
- Cost effectiveness of solar PV.
- The challenges of fluctuating weather.
- Securing the solar PV network.
- Solar scalability and future potential.
Optimising the renewable energy mix
On Tuesday 22 August, CSIRO speaker Paul Graham, Chief Economist – Energy Markets, will discuss the most effective balance of renewable and non-renewable energy.
This will explore policy obstacles to increased renewable uptake.
Caroline Croser-Barlow, of South Australia’s Department of Environment, will then talk about the interdependency of power, gas and renewables.
On Wednesday 23 August, Roger Price of WindLab Ltd will discuss optimising Queensland’s renewable mix by incorporating wind and solar.
This session will explore WindLab’s world-first project in Far North Queensland, which is introducing wind to the demand on solar projects.
The aim is to meet baseload by leveraging the increasing cost competitiveness of renewables , specifically the solar-wind blend.
The final conference speaker, Professor Gerard Ledwich from the Queensland University of Technology, will discuss users’ increasing demand to deploy renewables off the grid.
Conference registration is now open. Early bird discounts cut off July 28.
