Caloundra’s LREZ is in the growth area of the Sunshine Coast.
Local Renewable Energy Zone (LREZ) pilot
The Local Renewable Energy Zone (LREZ) pilot project sites being established in Caloundra and Townsville will help the community generate more renewable energy, and store it and share it locally across the poles and wires infrastructure that already exists.
LREZs put customers at the centre of the energy transition where their energy resources, like solar, batteries and electric vehicles, work closely with our network-connected batteries and existing electricity infrastructure, allowing more renewable energy to be generated and used on the network.
The Queensland LREZ is a nation-first project to maximise the value of locally produced renewable energy for all customers including renters, low-income households and those who live in unit complexes and do not have access to solar power.
Roof top solar is already a significant contributor to our emissions reduction targets, however, there remains untapped potential for roof tops to host even more solar. The LREZ seeks to encourage increased levels of renewable energy generation in the community, with support from batteries in an efficient way, to get the most benefit from the existing poles and wires.
The LREZ enables communities to lead the way in the renewable energy transition and will bring together customers, retailers, and networks for a co-ordinated collaborative approach to delivering on renewable energy targets supporting not only the local area, but also the Queensland energy system.
The pilot project includes a partnership with universities and peak body organisations, such as the Smart Energy Council, to help inform customer incentive programs, economic models, customer adoption and behavioural change strategies, and technical standards.
Local Renewable Energy Zone (LREZ)
Skip to descriptionNo transcript, music only.
This animation demonstrates how Queensland's LREZs aim to put customers at the centre of the energy transition.
What does the LREZ involve?
The LREZ pilot project will see the deployment of up to 8.4MW/18.8MWh of battery storage and support up to an additional 2.8MW of solar PV, and 0.9MW of demand management across each zone.
It will work with behind the meter customer assets such as roof top solar, batteries and home energy management systems.
The LREZ is being funded by the Queensland Government and will be rolled out over the coming three to four years.
It is being expanded by the Queensland Solar Bank project, funded by the Australian Government, which aims to roll-out an additional 5.3MW of roof top solar focusing initially on the LREZ zones and surrounding areas, with the benefits shared across 5,500 low-income households. We are engaging now on how to best ensure equitable access to the benefits of new technologies, and the energy transition more broadly.
The outcome of the two pilot sites will provide pathways for policy, economic, social and technical solutions to sustain a delivery model for future LREZ roll-out across Queensland.
EQL Chief Engineer talks about LREZs in Queensland
Skip to descriptionOur customers in Queensland have been voting with their wallets and installing roof top solo at global leading rates.
We've got over 800,000 customers who have got roof top solar. Unfortunately not all of our customers have got a roof. So a local renewable energy zone is an opportunity for us to work with local communities and find new ways to have roof top solar for those who've got a roof, to have roof top solar for those who don't, to find new places to put batteries, and at the end of the day the objective is to enable the whole community to have their energy needs met. Whether it's charging their EV, powering their air conditioner, keeping their lights on. That's the purpose of a local renewable energy Zone and it's really about making distribution fundamental to that energy transition.
In terms of the Energy Queensland network, we've got to really meet those emerging and changing customer expectations, particularly as we look to electrify transport. We've got to find ways to enable, you know, that electrification of load to be serviced with a minimum new investment in our network. I used the analogy before about a multi-lane highway. On a Christmas holiday it's flat out, really really constrained, at other times of the year less people on the road, easier. We need to find that analogy and translate into sharing the capacity we've got in a distribution network so that every customer can get their energy needs met in a cost effective way.
You know I talk a little bit about customers, I've got some really smart engineers working at Energy Queensland that can help us solve the technical challenges. Technical challenges are at the core of the problem state we've got for a local renewable energy zone or in fact the broader energy transition. What we've got to solve, is new business models, new regulatory agendas, new ways to engage customers who presently can't engage. The purpose of day is to get broad community engagement, so we can explore and identify new solutions, not only for this like renewable energy zone, but to enable us to effectively input to a new a structure for the NEM moving forward.
Our Chief Engineer Peter Price explains the fundamentals of the new LREZs in this video.
What are the LREZ benefits?
LREZs will:
- Improve the reliability and resilience of energy supply, by providing a self-sufficient source of clean energy and storage locally
- Reduce the infrastructure investment required in our electricity distribution system by smoothing Queensland’s peak solar energy profile
- Enable the grid to be ready for more EVs by co-locating solar, storage, and EV charging to reduce the need to upgrade the grid as demand for EV infrastructure grows
- Help support Queensland's transition to a smart, low carbon energy future.
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