Displacing Diesel
How might we use data and technology to displace all diesel in the Territory?
Go to Challenge | 3 teams have entered this challenge.
Team Name:
Sugarcity.io
Team Members:
NTech
Project Info
Team Name
Sugarcity.io
Team Members
Nathan , Aiden , Dennis Murphy , Chris Vella and 1 other member with an unpublished profile.
Data Story
Various data sources were utilised to validate the proposed Virtual Power Plant (VPP) technology to be implemented within a remote Northern Territory community.
Identifying Remote Northern Territory Communities
Identifying the communities which would be serviced via the Indigenous Essential Services (IES) was the first step. The Displacing Diesel project overview indicated that these remote communities are classified as Remote Australia or Very Remote Australia, by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This information served as our as our starting point.
The ABS Data Explorer as a great start to identify communities which were classified as Remote Australia or Very Remote Australia by the ABS Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Remoteness Standard. Majority of the communities were identified, however not all could be, so were sourced from other sources from the internet to fill in the data gaps. The ABS Data Explorer was also utilised to estimate the approximate population of each one of these communities.
Community Profile
The ABS Community Profiles dataset was extremely valuable to quickly establish a typical profile for a household that would reside in each one of the identified Northern Territory remote communities. This profile was required to help estimate the energy usage and peak demand requirements for a typical household, within the community. Many of these communities fell within the 0852, 0862 and 0872 postcodes; which made profiling the households within these communities relatively straightforward.
With a typical residential dwelling profiled, it was time to estimate the number of dwellings which resided in each one of these communities. This in-turn, would help estimate the number of potential Distributed Energy Resources (DER) that could be available to participate in the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) project.
Validation of Proposed Technology
Solar irradiance levels and rainfall data was sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to confirm adequate levels of potential to validate the use of small-scale solar photovoltaic generators (SGUs) within the locations of the remote communities. With the primary energy source which the proposed VPP will consist of validated; our team also looked at the existing SGU installations across the Northern Territory, to help estimate an average installation capacity. Data from the postcode data for small-scale installations was utilised to calculate that the average installation capacity across the Northern Territory in the previous year was roughly 11kW. A conservative approach was taken, based on the typical dwelling profile obtained from the previous datasets, to downscale this average unit capacity down to 5kW.
With validation from the datasets completed, it was now easy to estimate the viability of the solution. The Renewable Energy Fractions (ERFs), initial capital costs and ongoing maintenance costs could now be approximated and compared via several scenarios of differing operational variables.
Team DataSets
Postcode data for small-scale solar installations
Description of Use Used to calculate the average installation capacity of small-scale solar generating units across the Northern Territory.
Daily rainfall - Yulara Airport
Description of Use Example of datasets used in calculating suitability of solar installations in remote communities
Daily global solar exposure - Yulara Airport
Description of Use Example of datasets used in calculating suitability of solar installations in remote communities
Bureau of Meteorology weather stations - All Australia
Description of Use Dataset used to correlate the location of weather stations and nearby communities for weather data required for analytics.
Indigenous Locations - 2021 - Shapefile
Description of Use The Indigenous Locations shapefile has been used as a means of factoring roll-out of diesel displacement measures.
Projected population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, Remoteness Area, 2016 to 2031
Description of Use This dataset was used to evaluate the estimated growth of the many remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.
Population and water data for (72) NT remote communities - updated 20 April 2016
Description of Use This datasource was used to estimate the potential energy requirements of the many remote NT communities.
List of 72 Northern Territory remote Indigenous communities provided with services under the Indigenous Essential Services Agreement 2013-2016.
Description of Use This datasource was used to determine the size of the many Indigenous communities that require the displacement of diesel as their primary source of energy.
Challenge Entries
Integrate Disparate Data Sources like a Palantir Engineer
When working with our customers worldwide, our most successful outcomes come from our ability to make sense out of high degrees of complexity. We think that leveraging our existing toolkits and performing data fusion in your projects will help you better solve the problems of GovHack 2022.
Eligibility: Fuse multiple sources of data into a single pane of glass (such as graphs or pivot tables); and/or leverage the Blueprint UI Toolkit in some or all of your designs and prototypes.
Go to Challenge | 9 teams have entered this challenge.
Best Creative Use of Data in Response to ESG (AU)
How can you showcase data in a creative manner to respond to ESG challenges? How can we present and visualise data to stimulate conversation and promote change?
Eligibility: Must use a least one Australian relevant dataset - combining datasets preferred.
Go to Challenge | 31 teams have entered this challenge.
Helping Australia reach net zero emissions by 2050
Australia has a goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050. How can Australians use public spaces, including city landscapes to achieve these goals?
Eligibility: This question is open to all participants, excluding those currently working at CER, AER, DISR or ACCC.
Go to Challenge | 18 teams have entered this challenge.
The 2021 Australian Census
How might we link the 2021 Census data with open data to highlight or solve a challenge Australians are facing
Eligibility: Teams are encouraged to use datasets from a variety of sources, but at least one must be drawn from the ABS Census 2021.
Go to Challenge | 24 teams have entered this challenge.