Energex has published its 2012-13 to 2016-17 Network Management Plan (NMP) providing a f blueprint for the company’s current and future plans for operating, maintaining and improving South East Queensland’s electricity supply.

 

The Plan, which is published annually under the requirements of the Queensland Electricity Industry Code, outlines the company’s commitment to deliver a safe, reliable, cost effective supply of electricity to the more than 3.1 million people who live in South East Queensland.

 

The NMP includes an assessment of the current regulatory framework, an overview of the network and emerging issues including the impacts of changing customer energy patterns, new technologies and environmental factors, such as domestic solar PV.

 

The report includes information regarding historical energy consumption and peak power demand and future forecast trends; the impact of air-conditioning use on temperature sensitive load and extensive analysis of the network reliability and performance against Minimum Service Standards.

 

Included in the NMP is information regarding the capital works and operational expenditure for the 2011-12 period and longer term targets; power quality performance and company’s response capacity for natural disasters, severe weather events and other emergencies.

 

Among the information contained in the 2012-13 to 2016-17 NMP is that network demand forecasts show that with an average summer, peak electricity use in South East Queensland is tipped to hit 4988 megawatts. This is about 2.2 per cent above the temperature corrected peak from last summer.

 

Peak electricity demand for the next five years is forecast to rise at an annual average of 2.5 per cent, slightly higher than overall energy consumption which is expected to rise slowly at around 1.7 per cent annually due to increased energy efficiency of appliances, pricing impacts, the impacts of carbon pricing and the continued growth of domestic solar PV installations.

 

Peak electricity demand increases – traditionally on hot summer afternoons and evenings – rose by an average of nearly seven per cent annually each year between 2003 and 2007. The planning report attributes much of this change to the recent La Nina influenced weather patterns and a slower recovery from the Global Financial Crisis.

 

The report attributes the near-record flooding in summer 2010-11 followed by one of the mildest summers in South East Queensland in 80 years in 2011-12 for a softening in peak demand with the underlying temperature correction peaks still rising, albeit more slowly.

 

The report also highlights that the 2011-12 reliability performance of the Energex network for customers living in suburban areas was the best it has been since the first NMP was produced in 2004-2005.

The 2012-13 to 2016-17 Network Management Plan is available on the Network section of the Energex website.