More than one hundred renewable energy installers, developers and industry stakeholders attended a free forum in Perth last week to learn about the opportunities presented by the introduction of Horizon Power’s generation management specifications for renewable energy installations.
The introduction of generation management on 1 July 2012 forms part of Horizon Power’s re-launched and improved renewable energy buyback product that now offers town by town pricing, clearer eligibility requirements and updated technical requirements.
Horizon Power's Manager Sales, Marketing and Product Development Scott Davis said the utility has introduced the generation management standard to meet customer enthusiasm for installing renewable energy.
Generation management will enable Horizon Power to control the variability of output from renewable energy sources, either by energy smoothing devices or through feed-in management.
Mr Davis said that with this control, Horizon Power would be able to connect greater amounts of renewable energy to the electricity networks.
"One of the challenges of managing renewable energy installations connected to our electricity systems is the impact of their intermittent nature on the security and reliability of power supply, but by including specifications for generation managed systems in our updated technical requirements, we are confident we can overcome this.
"Horizon Power is committed to renewable energy and we are eager for the renewable energy industry to develop a product that overcomes the challenges of installing renewable energy on isolated networks.
"This will ultimately give customers more options about the size of systems they are able to install and enable us to accept more renewable energy in towns where hosting capacity has already been reached," he said.
A number of renewable energy suppliers have indicated they will have generation managed systems available to customers shortly. Mr Davis said the industry had been extremely receptive to the challenge of developing a suitable product.
"The renewable energy industry has been extremely receptive to meeting the challenge as the turn-out at the forum showed and I look forward to hearing about the solutions that they develop," he said.
Attendees at the forum praised Horizon Power for their innovative and transparent approach to facilitating the installation of renewable energy onto their networks.
One installer described generation management as an 'elegant solution to a difficult problem', while another described it as almost 'world-leading' and thanked Horizon Power for the 'open forum approach'.
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