Future Energy

PowerNet is excited to be exploring new and emerging technologies, which will have a positive impact on our customers, communities and network assets.

Technology is moving fast and over the last few years, we have seen a substantial increase in the uptake of solar, electric vehicles and electricity options with a focus on time of use.

We all want a reliable, efficient, affordable and sustainable electricity supply, and that can look different for different people.

Solar energy and storage

Small scale power generation, especially solar, is becoming increasingly popular for both commercial and residential customers. The scale of systems ranges enormously and it’s important to firstly understand your needs, your energy consumption and what you want to achieve before committing to it.

How much power am I currently using (you can get this data from your energy retailer)?
What are my plans – do I intend to install further appliances, purchase an electric vehicle or extend my home?
What is the expected energy profile for my house (what times do I use the most power)?
Am I prepared to change my energy use behaviour to match when generation is available?
How much do I want to invest and what will be the return period on my investment?

If your home is connected to our network and your generation creates more electricity than you need, you can store it to use later using a battery. You may also be able to sell excess electricity back to your retailer.

There can be limitations to the amount you can export back at any time depending on where you are on our network. All networks have some limitations, but we can assess this for you and provide advice on how much you are able to export.

PowerNet has recently increased the export capacity limit to 10kW for single phase applications. This won’t be available to every customer due to somelimitations, however is widely available in most areas. You do need to make an application for any new distributed generation connection or any increase to your export capacity. This ensures we can allocate capacity fairly among our connected customers.

Read more here to understand whether power generation and/or storage is right for you.

Find out more about getting connected here.

Electric Vehicles

The benefits of a move to more electric vehicles have been highlighted by this year’s fuel crisis. For those who have already moved to electric vehicles, the advantages have been long established including financial and environmental.

The variety of electric vehicles on the market is increasing, and public charging stations are more available.

While electric vehicles do increase the load on local electricity networks, with the right technology this can be managed to improve utilisation rather than trigger expensive upgrades. This advancing technology will also benefit customers by supporting them to utilise time of use pricing from retailers to get the best value for charging their vehicles.

Connecting your vehicle to the grid

Electric vehicles are also essentially batteries on wheels and for vehicles that are V2G (vehicle to grid) capable, customers can use them to manage their energy costs by charging and later exporting the excess energy to the network/grid.

A V2G charging system includes an inverter to direct energy stored in the electric vehicle battery back to the network/grid and when it does this it essentially behaves as a generator. We therefore treat V2G connections as distributed generation that is required to meet the same inverter-based generation standards as solar or battery installations. V2G connections can be applied for using PowerNet's Distributed Generation Application Form and indicating the inverter type as V2G on the form.

Business Decarbonisation and Growth

PowerNet has already worked with several major customers in their decarbonisation journeys.

Decarbonisation or business growth projects include, but are not limited to:

Electrification of process heat
Electrification of space heating
Electrification of transportation
Hydrogen production
New renewable generation sites

Start Your Decarbonisation Strategy