Energy Queensland (EQL), Australia’s largest electricity company, delivers power to people in a state that’s twice the size of Texas. The utility serves more 2.3 million customer connections most of them in an area covering 3% of the state with the rest scattered across the other 97%. Energy distribution in this landscape is challenging, especially because energy must be delivered in a safe, affordable, and sustainable manner, ensuring social equity for everyone.
Rooftop power
“It’s really fundamental to us that we bring everyone along for the energy journey. It’s about giving everyone a similar level of service at the same price,” said Peter Price, Chief Engineer at Energy Queensland. Price was speaking at the recent SAP for Energy and Utilities Conference in Sevilla, Spain.
Price went on to explain that as a result of the accelerated adoption of renewable energy in Queensland, one in three households is now generating electricity on their rooftop. This consumer-led transformation means customers expect personalized services to empower them with choice, control, and convenience.
“We aim to enable the lifestyles and energy freedoms of our customers and communities through an enhanced experience,” said Price, who is responsible for maintaining 210,000 kilometers of overhead and underground network and 1.7 million utility poles. “The increased availability of energy resources such as rooftop solar provides significant opportunities for decarbonizing the economy and empowering customers to produce and consume energy. Our job is to make sure these products and services benefit all Queenslanders equitably.”
Electrifying the community
According to EQL, an Electric Life is where households and businesses are in the driver’s seat and subsidiary businesses are trusted partners delivering secure, affordable, and sustainable energy solutions.
“We’re electrifying everything, including transport, commercial, and industrial loads. Queensland’s peak demand is just over 11 gigawatts and rooftop solar PV capacity is now greater than 5 gigawatts. It’s expected to more than double over the next 10 years,” said Price.
Unexpectedly, as the Chief Engineer, Price spends a lot of time thinking about the social challenges. People who put up rooftop solar generally own their own home. The real issue from an engineering perspective is how to maximize the benefits of the investments that customers are making in rooftop solar.
Within a couple of years, the network will have more generation than load on mild weather days, raising the question of how not to waste the extra power.
“The way we price electricity means that people who can afford rooftop solar get the savings while everyone else pays more. So being able to get a system in place, where you can equitably share the benefits, is a really difficult challenge,” said Price.
Making it happen
Queensland is undergoing one of the largest electricity sector transformations in history. The utilities company has just pushed out its energy targets to 2035, in alignment with Queensland Government emissions reduction targets, and has implemented a range of projects to enable the large-scale shift to renewables, including:
- Future-proofing its electricity network
- Installing network batteries to store extra energy generated from household solar
- Delivering the Queensland Electric Vehicle Super Highway with charging stations
- Servicing retail customers with products and services
- Enhancing its workforce with teams and capabilities to support its own growth and support the Queensland Government’s Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan
The opportunities created by digital platforms used in these projects make a difference to how assets are managed. “You have to use technology to keep track of it,” said Price. “We’re moving toward tools that can train themselves, but we’re not quite in the generative AI space yet.”
Putting AI to use
Price and his team are currently looking at a number of use cases for deploying AI. One crucial area is critical infrastructure security, including maintaining further standards for cybersecurity. Another is data volume.
When running the distribution network in the past, for example, there may have been 50,000 points of information coming in at 30-minute intervals. But now, there may be 2.3 million or 2.4 million along with the other 50,000 coming in at one-to-five-minute intervals in real time.
Last but, not least, in relation to the vast number of new batteries coming online, EQL is very mindful of fire risks. Batteries catch fire because one of the tiny cells in the battery gets too hot, so each cell in every battery must be monitored. “We’re ensuring we have sophisticated monitoring systems in place including alarms in our substations to ensure our operators can manage the volume of information coming their way,” said Price.
Supporting the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan is another area keeping the Chief Engineer busy. The need for engineers and highly trained technicians is greater than ever before, and young people need to be aware of the benefits and purpose of working in the energy sector.
As Australia shuts down its coal-fired power stations and replaces them with renewable generators, at least three times as much renewable generation will be needed. By helping the government deliver affordable energy, EQL is not only developing new jobs in the sector, but it’s enabling the energy itself to create new jobs.
“The young people coming on board can barely conceive of how networks were built back in the 1900s. Everything was mechanical back then, but now it’s a digital world. I’d love to be 30 years younger, so I could spend the next 50 years in the future, it’s that exciting!” said Price.
