Urban Renewable Energy Zones

Reliable, affordable, clean energy for all

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Reliable

DER can deliver long term value in the form of energy system reliability and flexibility with less risk

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Affordable

DER is generally the cheapest form of all energy sources and can lower energy expenses by up to 45%

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Clean energy for all 

Opportunity for all Australians participate in the energy transition and reap its full rewards

How will the initiative fill this gap?

The UREZ project will enable communities to take advantage of the high value DER path by orchestrating across the electricity system to operate efficiently as an integrated system to:

  • Harness existing resources: Tap into citizen empowerment – being listened to, being involved, being able to initiate change
  • Resilient energy system with no single point of failure: Tap into behavioural changes, energy accessibility, more responsive to needs and adaptive capacity
  • Sustainable market forces and self-organisation:  Tap into fair, diverse, self-organising markets, including innovations

 

Stakeholders and roles:

Energy Enablers

Work with local & state government, DSO, DMO, and aggregators to smooth the path for implementation and replication by exploring payments for services, agile connection approvals and policy changes to support a high-value DER path

Commercial consortia

Group of organisations who implement an initial commercial UREZ deal that meet key criteria. This group will likely include community organisations seeking to co-own community DER.

Community

Work for local community organisations who are already driving investment in DER in their region to amplify their impact. Authentically engage the future market participants to design solutions which benefit them.

How you can get involved

Support the orchestration, collaboration and design effort across four UREZs to leverage funding and demonstrate commerciality of at-scale UREZs in Australia.

Get in touch

Who we're working with

We are connected to a range of partners across the country including project orchestration partners, research support partners, energy consortia partners and commercial partners.

Our team

Genevieve Mortimer
Principal - Innovation Projects Climate-KIC Australia

Genevieve is responsible for managing projects which aim to drive systemic change. Her careers spans impact assessment, research, stakeholder engagement and sustainability in the mining, forestry and energy sectors. She takes a systems perspective, integrating technologies, decision-making processes and organisational change strategies to solve complex problems.

“Australians have embraced rooftop solar at double the rate of any other nation. Key technologies are enabling a fundamental shift in what is possible. DER are changing consumers’ behaviors from passive participation in the grid to active contribution.”
Engineers Australia

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