New Blog Address

timnelson — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:41:59 +0000

Hi bloggers, just a quick one, our new blog address is: www.aglblog.com.au

We hope you enjoy the new format.

Please bookmark this new address and remember, we look forward to your questions and views so please send them in.

AGL…a Climate Partner

timnelson — Thu, 27 May 2010 06:46:06 +0000

On Monday, the Climate Institute launched its “Climate Partners” program. AGL is proud to be an inaugural partner with the Climate Institute Climate Partners program. As many regular readers of this blog know, AGL is Australia’s second oldest company (with another Climate Partner Westpac being the oldest) so we know a thing or two about what it takes to be a sustainable business. We are looking forward to working with the Climate Institute and other Climate Partners to work towards reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas footprint. We will consistently advocate for a broad based emissions trading scheme and believe that this should be complemented by a Renewable Energy Target and energy efficiency trading scheme.

For more information, check out http://www.climateinstitute.org.au/climate-partners

Cost structure of a wind farm

timnelson — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:45:19 +0000

Today’s blog is all about building a wind farm. The chart above shows the breakdown of the EPC cost of a wind farm. While the EPC doesnt make up the entire cost of a wind farm, it makes up the vasy majority of costs. You can see that most of the cost is in the actual generator and the electrical equipment (i.e. lines to connect each generator and the connection to the transmission network).

The most important thing to remember about renewable projects is that the fuel (in this case, wind) is free. Once they are built, you have a zero cost fuel resource to draw upon. This provides distinct advantages over thermal plant that rely upon oil, gas or coal where prices can vary depending upon demand and supply.

AGL to open Hallett 2 wind farm

timnelson — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:41:25 +0000

The local community has been invited to join the South Australian Premier, the Hon Mike Rann, and AGL Energy for the official opening of the AGL Hallett 2 wind farm on Saturday 29 May 2010. Situated on Hallett Hill, west of the Mt Bryan township and approximately 20km from AGL Hallett 1 wind farm on the Brown Hill range, the $159m wind farm is another important step in helping South Australia and the nation meet their renewable energy targets. AGL, which is proud of its involvement in the local community, is inviting people in the surrounding communities to tour the newly completed wind farm and also to join in the celebration of its opening. Through planning and construction of the wind farm, approximately 200 local people have worked on the project at various times.

Time: 10.45 for 11am
Date: Saturday 29 May 2010
Location: AGL Hallett 2 Wind Farm, Range Road, Mt Bryan SA 5418

See map.

Please meet at the above site, where you will be transported up close to a wind turbine for a panoramic view of the wind farm with the Premier and AGL CEO, Michael Fraser.

To follow Michael Fraser on Twitter, http://twitter.com/agl_ceo

AFR story on energy efficiency: AGL dissenting view

timnelson — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:42:40 +0000

Today’s AFR has a story on page 12 which talks about the Energy Retailers Association of Australia not supporting a national energy efficiency trading scheme. AGL does not support this position. AGL believes that a national energy efficiency trading scheme is an essential policy tool for improving end use energy efficiency throughout Australia. By articulating a target based upon the best quantitative assessment of energy efficiency available, market participants will be able to select the most appropriate projects to deploy. Over the past decade, AGL has delivered significant energy efficiency savings for many of our customers through activities such as cogeneration. A national energy efficiency trading scheme will assist in delivering more of these activities, delivering value for our customers and the community.

More information on the energy efficiency and carbon management services available to our customers can be found here http://www.agl.com.au/business/cms/Pages/default.aspx

What is a load factor?

timnelson — Sun, 16 May 2010 22:32:00 +0000

Many people often ask me what a load factor is as its one of the terms often used by people within the energy industry without much by way of explanation.

As you know electricity is consumed as it is generated in a modern power system. While research and development into battery storage continues, there is little deployed electricity storage in Australia’s electricity system. As such, supply has to ramp up and down as demand does. This makes our industry very different from others because there is no inventory management (i.e. building up stocks of a product to supply customers at times of peak demand such as Christmas).

A load factor measures the ratio of energy consumption at times of peak demand compared to average consumption. A declining load factor means that peak demand is growing more quickly than average consumption. A declining load factor presents issues such as: increased spending on network infrastructure used for small periods of the year; increased requirements for peaking power stations that can be switched on and off quickly; and greater variation (or volatility) in demand.

Tomorrow we will provide some quantitative information on load factors within the NEM.