Allan Jones MBE on Sydney Harbour

Development in 2030:

Energy master plan

Making it happen – clean, green energy

The City has an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent by 2030 which can also cut electricity bills for NSW consumers.

To help achieve this target the City has appointed UK energy expert Allan Jones. His previous work reduced greenhouse gas emissions at the city of Woking by 80 per cent and produced similar results for the city of London.

At the moment, 80 per cent of the City of Sydney’s emissions come from the production of electricity by coal-fired power stations in the Hunter Valley. Two thirds of the energy being used by these stations is wasted as heat from the cooling towers and on long-distance transmission over power lines to Sydney.

The City’s goal is to produce 70 per cent of its energy needs locally from trigeneration plants. These local generators are nearly three times more energy efficient than coal-fired power plants because they use the waste heat from electricity production to both heat and cool buildings. The rest of the City’s reductions will come from energy efficiency measures and from installing renewable energy such as solar panels.

Local power for the City of Sydney

Allan Jones is responsible for the tendering process for the trigeneration systems. This has attracted interest from major energy companies here and overseas. He is also overseeing the rollout of energy efficiency programs on the City’s 200 properties and setting up a $2 million dollar a year renewable energy installation fund.

Over the next three years electricity prices in NSW will rise by up to 42 per cent with the majority going to pay for a $5 billion dollar upgrade of the electricity network of cables, poles and substations. Local trigeneration plants, energy efficiency measures and renewable energy would remove the need for much of this upgrade and also for any new coal-fired power stations that would cost, in total, between $3 billion and $4 billion.

However, government regulations are preventing the City from carrying out the plan to supply city building owners with this local, low-carbon electricity and reduce electricity bills for NSW consumers. Allan Jones has been meeting with NSW government ministers and the Opposition, calling for the removal of these regulatory barriers to local energy production and distribution. He has also written a submission to the Federal Government’s energy efficiency task group which reports mid-year.

Trigeneration Master Plan

A key component of Sustainable Sydney 2030 is the call for a network of Green Transformers, principally housing trigeneration, to supply the City of Sydney local government area with low-carbon electricity and zero-carbon heating and cooling.

In 2009, the City engaged a consortium of Kinesis, Cogent and Origin Energy to develop the City’s Decentralised Energy Master Plan – Trigeneration (Trigeneration Master Plan). This is the first of the City’s Green Infrastructure Master Plans, which will produce significant energy savings across the city.

There was extensive modelling of the electricity, heating and cooling demands of buildings in the local government area to determine the optimal sizes and locations for trigeneration systems.

An interim Trigeneration Master Plan has been completed covering the four energy dense zones of the city – CBD North/Barangaroo, CDB South, Pyrmont/Broadway and Green Square. Together, these four zones would deliver 360MWe of trigeneration, which would exceed the City’s target.

The interim Trigeneration Master Plan would reduce the City’s greenhouse gas emissions by between 1.1 million and 1.7 million tonnes a year. This represents a reduction in these emissions of between 39 per cent and 56 per cent for the building sector and between 18 per cent and 26 per cent of the overall Sustainable Sydney 2030 target.

The interim Master Plan is on public exhibition until Friday 28 January 2011, and the final Trigeneration Master Plan is expected to be completed in 2011.

For more information read the Decentralised Energy Master Plan – Trigeneration resources under ‘Green Infrastructure Plan’ below.

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.

Resources

Tender documents

Energy and climate change briefings

Green Infrastructure Plan

Interim Trigeneration Master Plan Factsheets

Decentralised energy

Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency

Regulatory barriers to trigeneration

Council reports

Presentations

Presentations to NSW Councils, 19 August 2010

Tweets from Allan Jones

  • Last night the City chose Origin's Cogent Energy to build low-carbon energy network to power central Syd & slash greenhouse gas emissions.

    2 months ago
  • City to cut GHG by 13%, save $1.3m a year on energy and water with efficiency overhaul of buildings by Origin Energy- http://t.co/PCyNdHq

    5 months ago
  • City of Sydney has called for tenders on LED street lights to cut energy use by 40 per cent http://bit.ly/i43mtP

    9 months ago

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