Dr. John Bell
Professor, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Speech title: Managing energy demand and cost: using roof space for generation and demand management

Abstract: Reducing energy cost for consumers and reducing greenhouse emissions are hot topic issues around the world. The use of rooftop solar photovoltaic generation is becoming widespread in many countries, and there is significant uptake of domestic PV generation in Australia. However there are other ways to implement modifications to a roof which can reduce cooling demand, and in particular summer peak load on electricity networks. This paper will provide details of two approaches to managing electricity cost: cool roof coating technology and the use of rooftop PV. The impact of cool roof coatings on domestic and commercial buildings (schools and retail outlets) were studied in a 2 year field study in Queensland (beginning in August 2012), and results demonstrating the significant impact on both summer energy demand (24-30%) and summer peak load (22-28%) for buildings with cool roof coatings in a hot, subtropical climate will be presented. Rooftop generation of PV is well understood, and has significant impacts on the grid demand for the consumers for consumption occurring during the day, but has significant effects on the daytime grid demand for the electricity network, which can lead to additional network and base load generation costs. The paper will also present a new modelling framework (MODAM), an agent-based modelling framework for studying in detail the evolution of demand at the Medium Voltage level of the distribution system, and how this has been extended to the low voltage network to assess the impact of trajectories of electricity consumption and production from decentralised generators and demand management strategies, on the different assets of the electricity grid. This information, and the ability to manage the network effectively to cope with both decentralised generation and demand management strategies, is critical to being able to realise the potential base load energy savings without increasing network charges and suffering penalties from reduced daytime baseload demand.