Aussie WISP 1

Thu Nov 15 21:23:18 CST 2001

-------- Original Message --------
From: Adam Shand <adam at personaltelco.net>
To: Word Up <wordup at lists.spack.org>
Subject: [wordup] Oz Bundling New Energy, Broadband
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List-Id: Life is interesting,here's news from the net. <wordup.lists.spack.org>
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This actually came in from one of the wireless email lists I'm on but I
thought it was a pretty cool use of technology so I'm sending it out.

Adam.

Via: nycwireless at lists.spack.org
From: http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,48100,00.html

Oz Bundling New Energy, Broadband
By Stewart Taggart
2:00 a.m. Nov. 12, 2001 PST

SYDNEY, Australia -- Lower costs, green electricity and broadband
communications, too.

Over the next four years, researchers in Western Australia will be
outfitting remote Outback communities with wind and solar power, which
will be remotely adjusted by satellite to maximize their renewable energy
output and reduce the need for backup diesel generators. The spare
capacity on the satellite uplink can also be used for other things, such
as local broadband Internet access, telemedicine and education.

Solar and wind power have long been deployed in the Outback. So have
various satellite communications technologies. And real-time remote
monitoring and control is now commonplace for businesses that operate
things like isolated oil wells. But so far, no one's bundled all three for
isolated communities.

"We want to see how far we can push this technology down to the local
level," said Frank Reid, managing director of the Australian Cooperative
Research Centre for Renewable Energy, in Perth, Western Australia. "We
want to find out how small a system we can cost-effectively control."

Telecommunications and energy providers have long been bedeviled by the
high costs involved in serving small, isolated communities. High capital
and fuel transport costs, ruinous maintenance expenses, and small local
consumption profiles makes the economics daunting.

Virtually everywhere, such services are subsidized, putting the focus on
cost reduction.

"Ultimately, we want to build a platform for shared services," says Reid,
who believes the technology could work for communities as small as ten
people.

Over the next four years, he'll oversee installation of various-sized
solar panels, wind power generators, energy-storing batteries, and small
VSAT satellite dishes in 240 remote Outback communities.

The system relies largely upon technology developed by Honeywell
International for Perth oil and gas producer Amadeus Petroleum NL, which
has deployed it to monitor its own maintenance and production needs at
various hard-to-reach oil wells. The system relies on linking power and
monitoring systems to a small VSAT satellite dish that in turn connects by
satellite to a control room of Amadeus, either through a dedicated phone
line or the Internet.

Amadeus Petroleum believes its central control room in Perth can, in
addition to managing its dedicated installations like oil wells, monitor
large numbers of small power-generating plants in small villages.

That's because none of these village-level power plants would require
full-time watching. For instance, the control room might contact a village
only when its electricity consumption rises on a particular day to where
it could crash its finite local power supply.

Similarly, remote troubleshooting could assist scheduled maintenance
visits to be more productive, allowing repairmen to show up with the right
parts. This makes a difference when the parts depot is a long distance
away.

Paul Budde, an independent telecommunications analyst in Sydney, is
skeptical. He sees this project as an over-engineered Outback white
elephant. Budde believes simplicity and reliability are more important to
isolated settlements than fancy, multi-bundled solutions.

"No one is going to opt for solar power because they can save on
telecommunications," Budde said. "The two transactions are different. Both
at one time is too complicated."

Reid strenuously disagrees, saying Budde's analysis rests on the
assumption that consumers in remote areas have a choice. In many small
communities, service costs are so high that traditional consumer economics
goes out the window, and that's why many small, isolated communities still
don't have phone service or electrical power. While this may be an
experiment, it's one that powerless, phoneless remote communities are
unlikely to pass up.

Reid plans to begin installing the systems early next year. If the program
is successful, he believes it could work well in remote areas of the
developing world.

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