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Implement measures to make electricity supply more affordable, reliable and sustainable.

Implement measures to make electricity supply more affordable, reliable and sustainable.

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This petition has been created by James R. and may not represent the views of the Avaaz community.
James R.
started this petition to
Governments worldwide that manage electricity rules, The Council on Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council, The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), The Australian Energy Regulator (AER), The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP, Senator the Hon Matthew Ca
Renewable energy technology with solar and storage is technically and economically the best option now, it is just incumbent interests with the fossil fuel lobby and (likely corrupt) politicians (that likely do backroom deals with incumbent gas and coal generators) that hold back its deployment. Somehow, we as energy consumers and citizens must free ourselves from the shackles of government and incumbent powers that hold us back from realizing a better life. We can not do so in the existing political and economic climate.While improving technology has its place, such as using smarter inverters that provide better grid services, and trading energy between local producers and consumers, the barriers to entry (inadequate governance) caused by incumbent interests is of more pressing concern. It seems like better governance that could be provided by the likes of Democracy.Earth is a good step in the right direction to resolve issues with not only the electricity grid, but also of many other woes that are caused by centralization of power.

Centralization is a root cause of most of the issues facing the provision of electricity today. Gentailers get market dominance and gamify the market, the government has inadequate regulation (and should really repurchase electricity grids), and network operators are not able to keep up with the pace of change, for a variety of reasons, such as because they have little incentive (such as from regulation) to do so.

Local electricity trading (particularly with blockchain technology) can help to make solar and energy storage more economical, particularly for residential and commercial solar. People who have a solar system could sell excess energy to those who do not have one, thus opening up new markets for solar energy. Furthermore, if the generated energy is sold to nearby users, then there is the potential to create microgrids, and lower the costs of maintaining and upgrading distributed grid networks. By making solar and energy storage more affordable, local electricity trading can give more power to the people (pun intended), reduce electricity bills and help to increase the uptake of solar and storage. Local electricity trading can make grids more reliable (reducing the chance of blackouts), reduce the need for expensive expenditure on upgrading the grid (thus helping to prevent electricity bills from rising), reduce the chance of building new coal and gas fired power stations, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help the world move to a safer climate zone.

The AEMC rejected the rule change request by the City of Sydney, Property Council of Australia and the Total Environment Centre to implement local generation network credits in order to facilitate local electricity trading, thus reducing energy costs for consumers. Instead of implementing local generation network credits into the National Electricity Rules, they have required distribution network service providers (DNSPs) to publish information about expected system limitations.

Policies to enable local electricity trading include: letting utilities earn extra revenue on top of their cost‐of‐service earnings for enhancing system efficiency with distributed energy resources (DERs) and using them instead of typical grid investments. Further reforms push utilities to leverage their role as platform providers by providing system information to DER companies. These policies have already been implemented in New York [1]. While the AEMC rule determination has required the latter (for DNSPs to provide information about expected system limitations), they have not authorised the former policy (for utilities to earn extra revenue on top of their cost‐of‐service earnings for enhancing system efficiency with DERs and using them instead of typical grid investments).The National Electricity Objective should also include environmental impact as a consideration, since society and the economy would not be possible without the physical environment (and a healthy and safe one, too). Local generation network credits will also help to facilitate local electricity trading.

There are other important steps to consider, such as renationalising the electricity grid [2], and providing grid services with renewable energy.

References:
[1] Bade, Gavin. Published Feb 1, 2017. "Zibelman exit interview: How the New York REV is paving the way for transactive energy". Utility Dive . retrieved 9 February 2017,
[2] Ockenden, Will. Published 3 March 2017. "Return to public ownership of national electricity grid would reduce costs, says economist". ABC. Accessed 4 March 2017. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017‐03‐03/renationalising‐electricity‐grid‐could‐fix‐failure‐of‐system/8320910. Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017‐03‐03/renationalising‐electricity‐grid‐could‐fix‐failure‐of‐system/8320910

More information is available at the following pages:
  • http://www.aemc.gov.au/Rule‐Changes/Local‐Generation‐Network‐Credits
  • http://reneweconomy.com.au/1‐2‐billion‐saving‐australias‐electricity‐rule‐maker‐just‐knocked‐back‐43958/
  • http://www.uts.edu.au/research‐and‐teaching/our‐research/institute‐sustainable‐futures/our‐research/energy‐and‐climate‐2
  • http://lo3energy.com/
  • https://powerledger.io/
  • https://localvolts.com/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:LO3_Energy
Have a look at other campaigns/petitions listed here:
  • https://sustergy.wordpress.com/petitions

Posted (Updated )