Welcome to The Demand Manager, a quarterly e-newsletter designed to focus on energy and water demand management. With growing attention on climate change, demand management is fast gaining a reputation as the cheapest, quickest and most effective way to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Each edition will look at issues affecting the industry, examples of innovative projects and other news and views and we welcome your feedback and suggestions.

In This Issue

News Focus: Clean Business Australia - $240m Funding
Technology Focus: Power Factor Correction Program
News and Views: NGACs and the City to Surf
News and Views: CitySwitch Opportunity for Office Tenants
Dates to Watch

News Focus

Clean Business Australia - $240m Funding

There has been lots of news coming out of the Federal Government on the funding front for energy and water demand management.

One of the key election commitments of the Rudd Government was the formation of the $240m Clean Business Australia initiative.  The initiative comprises three programs:

• $75m for the Climate Ready program which provides funding up to $5m in matched funding for the research and development, proof-of-concept and early stage commercialisation of solutions to climate change.
  The next round of the Climate Ready program closes 4 December 2008.
• $75m for the Re-tooling for Climate Change program that aims to help Australian SMEs in the manufacturing sector to implement energy and water efficiency projects.
  The second round of the Re-tooling for Climate Change program will close on 16 February 2009.
• $90m for the Green Building Fund.  The GBF offers match-funding for projects that save energy in commercial office buildings throughout Australia.  The competitive funding can be anywhere between $50,000 and $500,000 for improvements to the base building such as common lighting, HVAC upgrades, building fabric improvements and BMS projects.  Building owners will be required to have a NABERS assessments of their building prior to application, so the time to move is now.
  The first round of the Green Building Program will close on 15 January     2009.

Technology Focus

With a growing focus on the environment and a strong desire to reduce the impact of peak electricity consumption, Power Factor Correction is stepping up to the challenge to help solve these problems.

When consumers use electricity, the various appliances using the power tend to distort the quality of the power, leading to an increase in the electrical current being used at the facility.  This increased current can lead to higher electricity bills based on the increased demand for power, with no useful benefit to the consumer.

Power Factor Correction technology is often called a “black-box solution” in that it solves the problem without any need for a change in activity on site.  Improving the power factor of a facility will save money, reduce greenhouse emissions and reduce the peak demand on the whole electrical grid.

Funding is available from a number of sources to help implement this energy-saving 101 project, including:

1. The PFC Program has $420,000 in funding from the NSW Government to help SME’s implement PFC in their sites within the Integral Energy area of operations.  Funding usually equates to around 20-30% of the capital cost of the equipment.
2. In NSW and the ACT, consumers installing PFC are generally able to create NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates for the installation of PFC equipment, approximating to $2 per kVAr installed.
3. Many states, including NSW and SA offer consumers funding rebates to install PFC equipment at their site in order to reduce peak power consumption.

Consumers interested in Power Factor Correction are encouraged to visit the PFC Program website here to find out more information.

News and Views

NGACs and the City to Surf

Demand Manager’s Jeff Bye recently took part in the Sun-Herald City to Surf fun-run in order to raise funds for the NSW Cancer Council.  Demand Manager donated 10 cents for every NGAC created during the 2007/08 and can be seen here with the Cancer Council’s Briony Beaven minutes before impending doom.

CitySwitch Opportunity for Office Tenants

City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore announced this week free NABERS energy ratings for tenancies less than 1,000m2 in size that sign up to the initiative, and 50% subsidised ratings for larger tenancies.

CitySwitch Green Office is a national tenant energy management program run in partnership between the cities of Sydney, North Sydney, Parramatta, Willoughby, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane and state government agencies. 
With a geographical location representing approximately 70 per cent of Australia’s office space, the program works with tenants to improve office energy efficiency, thereby reducing the CO2 emissions attributed to global warming.  One of the main reasons for choosing this way to save energy is that tenants can influence up to 50 percent of the total energy use in office buildings.

Signatories to the program commit to achieving a minimum four-star NABERS energy rating by implementing common, cost-effective energy saving upgrades. More information about the program can be found online.

Dates to Watch

Australian Institute of Energy - "Energy Efficiency"
Guest Speaker: George Wilkenfeld
13 November 2008
The Ballroom - Ayers House - 288 North Terrace - Adelaide

Green Capital – Carbon Ethics
Melbourne November 18th
Sydney November 20th

Clean Energy Council Conference and Exhibition 2008
24-26 November 2008
Gold Coast Convention Centre, Queensland

1 January 2009 – Proposed Commencement of the NSW Energy Efficiency Trading Scheme, Victorian Energy Efficient Target and SA Residential Energy Efficiency Scheme.