The Institute for Sustainable Futures at University of Technology, Sydney (ISF), Energy Networks Australia (ENA), and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) have launched the updated 2017 Network Opportunity Maps (NOM) this week – a free tool.
The NOM was developed by ISF and ENA, with support from ARENA. The maps are hosted on the Australian Renewable Energy Mapping Infrastructure (AREMI), a web-based platform for energy-related spatial data.
Initially published in 2015, the NOM shows where there are generation, transmission and network assets, embedded generation such as solar, and information about available capacity and constraints in the network.
The updated 2017 maps show new information including peak day load curves for most zones and ‘generation connection opportunities’ which show how much new generation could be connected to the grid in each area.
The information would be most useful for –
- large energy users,
- network and transmission businesses,
- aggregators and investors in generation, e.g. businesses offering demand response services could use the NOM to find out where investments in poles and wires could be deferred through the adoption of lower cost demand response activities and/or battery storage. They could use this information to propose demand management projects to network businesses.
