Local electricity
Today, around 80% of the City’s electricity still comes from coal-fired powers stations. Most are located in the Hunter Valley. Power stations lose about two-thirds of the energy coal produces (through steam) on site. More losses occur when the electricity is transmitted all the way from the Hunter to Sydney – and most of your bill goes towards transmission costs.
You don’t need to be in business to realise that’s a waste! Now what if we said we could power your business from a local generator? Well, we can!
The City is planning to install local generators in four energy dense zones in Central Sydney. While the red tape involved is really complicated, generating local electricity is not.
‘Trigeneration’ systems can be set up in the basement of a building or on vacant land; they are about the size of a shipping container. They produce all the electricity needed for a designated area and if there is any left over, it goes back into the grid.
Our systems will use low carbon fuels such as natural gas to start with. Eventually (and here it gets slightly more complicated), they will run on renewable energy produced from treating household waste.
Unlike the big power stations, trigeneration systems actually use the waste heat they accumulate – to heat buildings! It can even be converted to cool air in summer. That’s why to the boffins, trigeneration is known as a Combined Cooling, Heat and Power (CCHP) system.
Trigeneration has been tried and tested in England and we’ve bought UK specialist, Allan Jones MBE, to the City of Sydney to head up this project and oversee our entire response to climate change.
As noted, we face a tangle of red tape to cut through at state and federal government levels. That said, we completed and exhibited an interim Trigeneration Master Plan in late 2010–early 2011 and received no negative comments.
The next step is to put out a tender for the installation of four trigeneration systems which will power the CBD North/Barangaroo, CDB South, Pyrmont/Broadway and Green Square areas. We’re also putting in a trigeneration network to power the Sydney Town Hall and adjacent Council offices at Town Hall House.
Trigeneration is part of a larger green infrastructure program which will completely revolutionise energy use in the City of Sydney. Find out more in the presentation below:
- Trigeneration presentation part 1 | 2.1Mb PDF
- Trigeneration presentation part 2 | 9.7Mb PDF
- Trigeneration presentation part 3 | 1.7Mb PDF
- Trigeneration presentation part 4 | 1.1Mb PDF
We don’t plan to wait until 2030 to sign your business up to our local electricity network – its ‘full steam ahead’ on this one!
Towards 2030, our trigeneration systems will:
- help end our reliance on coal-fired power
- cut greenhouse emissions
- reduce electricity costs for businesses.
Read an article on the Global Mail website entitled The Hidden Cost Of Infinite Energy (Part 2) by Ellen Fanning on rising electricity prices, the solutions and action being taken by the City of Sydney.
