Undervoltage and winter electricity demand in Victoria

By Tom Langstaff,

Manager, Power Quality and Compliance, ahead of Energy Networks Australia’s #EN26 conference.

Do you remember a few years ago the entire industry was talking about overvoltage? We had rooftop solar exports being constrained because voltage levels were too high.

Well, now we're seeing customers with undervoltage issues, especially as electrification takes off.

We tracked thousands of customers from before they electrified until after they electrified and we found a four-fold increase in their power consumption, especially in winter.

This is particularly prominent in Victoria as customers get off gas for their space heating.

Increased power-use can cause customers voltage levels to dip, leading to appliances not working and heat pumps and EV chargers not working correctly. That's why we've built a customer level planning tool to bring these insights forward and help us get ahead of these issues before customers feel them.

We've got a plan and with support we can adapt our network to support our customers in areas where they need it. The Australian Energy Regulator will make a decision on our plans next month.

I'm speaking at #EN2626 this week, where I'll touch on these points and more. Hope to see you there.