Smart Upper South Island load management
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Following an Upper South Island load management trial during winter 2008, in March 2009 Orion began a load management trial service for the region, to run for two years through to April 2011.
The service is designed around real time data from Transpower and the Upper South Island electricity distributors to a centralised controller, based in Orion's control centre in Christchurch. |
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Transpower assisted with funding the project so that the knowledge gained could also be used to benefit other regions in New Zealand.
Eight distribution networks throughout the region are currently participating in the project - these networks are: Network Tasman, Marlborough Lines, MainPower, Orion, Buller Electricity, Westpower, Electricity Ashburton and Alpine Energy.
The project has two main objectives:
- to reduce demand during peak loading times. This reduces the need for transmission investment for growth, which puts downward pressure on costs for customers
- to assist Transpower to maintain security of supply. It does this by using all available load shedding capability across the Upper South Island, to automatically reduce load if needed during grid outages.
Follow the below links for further information about the Upper South Island load management project:
The software driving the load management system was provided by Catapult Software.
The below graph outlines the positive effects of coordinated Upper South Island load control on the region's electricity load - comparing a cold winter day in 2009 with a day when load control was not carried out.
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