‘Incentives’ to ease power use spikes
The Age Stage: Vicki Barber and Brodie Goozee. Picture: Rab Siddhi
Are you at the Age Stage? By Debra Mar - RPPFM Like it or not – we are all getting older – and so is the Mornington Peninsula’s population. So starting Thursday, September 1st at 11am, RPP FM will broadcast the Age Stage - a new 50 minute weekly magazine style program designed to explore the issues associated with our ageing. The Age Stage is aimed at anyone with an interest in the over 50 age group and will focus on all aspects of life from retirement, retirement lifestyles and aged care to health, finances, exercise, food, medical and technological change, entertainment, travel and our homes. Executive Producer Brodie Goozee, will present the program alongside Vicki Barber.
those choices.� Stuart Shaw, General Manager of Village Baxter says he’s delighted to be part of The Age Stage and says that the community must understand the important issues the program will examine. Station Manager Brendon Telfer, congratulated the programming initiative saying, “RPP FM as the voice of the Peninsula, needs to examine all aspects of our lifestyle and I know the team will present a brilliant series that will be supported on air, online and on our website. Tune in to 98.7FM or 98.3FM Frankston on Thursday, September 1st for the opening show just after the 11am news. Live stream from the rppfm.com.au website and download our APP
Brodie and Vicki will draw on a line of up of RPP reporters who each week will value-add by reporting on any topical issue that affect the 50 plus age group. Three big sponsors have come onboard to help spread the word - The Village Glen in Rosebud, Encore Living and Village Baxter. Peter Nilsson, Chief Operations Officer of The Village Glen said, “The aim of the program is to educate the marketplace and give locals the opportunity to ask questions.� Managing Director of Encore Living, Tom Camp added, “I bring a regional Victoria focus on living options available to older Australians. I want to ensure people understand what living choices they have and provide accurate information about
IT’S a baking hot day and it seems all the home air-conditioners on the Mornington Peninsula are switched on and guzzling power at the same time. This surge in seasonal demand, spurred on by holiday makers, leads to an unsustainable peak and then crash, the system fails and there’s a blackout. That’s the sort of scenario underpinning the Community Grids project – described as a “landmark� demand response and energy storage project, about to be rolled out on the southern peninsula. Community Grids aims to improve the reliability of the area’s electricity supply without the need for costly infrastructure upgrades. It will involve solar panels, battery storage systems and demand response enabled device units, which will allow businesses, households and community centres to reduce or shift their energy use during “peak demand events� such as heatwaves. The company behind the project, GreenSync, says that over the next five years it will engage and “incentivise� households, small businesses and community organisations from Rosebud to Portsea to help them reduce or shift their electricity use manually or through the use of solar panels and energy storage systems. Participants reducing their demand at critical times will be given cash payments, credits or products to make their efforts worthwhile. “We will use our cloud based technology platform to monitor and coordinate energy demand. During a critical event the platform will automatically reduce equipment use or notify participants to manually control their load,� Community Projects director Bruce Thompson
said. This will affect the use of air-conditioners, water pumps, battery storages and diesel generators. GreenSync will receive $554,886 in state government funding to support the control platform which “co-ordinates and optimises renewables connected to the grid�. The organisation has 25 staff at its Melbourne headquarters and has an office in Singapore. Mr Thompson said he would engage with peninsula utilities and large commercial and industrial operations to encourage them to control their discretionary power use. “The alternatives are building a whole new series of power lines, which would be horrendously expensive and be a big community issue, or to look at managing and controlling our loads in peak periods,� he said. “We will be aiming to coordinate what we can and switch off power to users whom we will incentivise depending on the size of the load and its duration. “This arrangement will be between GreenSync and individuals, retailers or community groups.� The company says it aims to save 11-13 megawatts of load during peak demand events. “We are just putting the pieces together with agreements with United Energy and now the state government ahead of a public launch and community engagement program to begin this summer,� Mr Thompson said. He presented the company’s case to Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors yesterday (Monday) and will speak with council officers and community organisations again on Thursday. Stephen Taylor
Dolphins sink under Neil Walker neil@mpnews.com.au DEBTS have forced the Frankston Football Club to go into voluntary administration. The Dolphins called in administrators Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants and the VFL club’s players were informed of the shock decision on Friday evening (26 August) as they prepared to face fellow league cellar dwellers North Ballarat on the Saturday in the
team’s final game of the season. The football club is believed to be struggling under about $800,000 worth of debts. Worrells issued a statement at the weekend saying it was too early to comment on the reasons for the Dolphins’ plight. The administrator stated two meetings will be held with creditors within 20-30 days of administration to “determine the future of the club�. The club’s decision to enter adminis-
tration comes almost a year after then club general manager Brett Angwin told The Times the club was not in financial strife despite carrying debts of around $1 million, partly to finance the completion of the club’s new $3.4 million stadium and function centre redevelopment. “We are not in any sort of financial trouble whatsoever,� he said in September last year. “We were audited by AFL Victoria about three weeks ago and received en-
dorsement on our operations.� It is understood Mr Angwin, appointed general manager that same month last year, left the Dolphins last month and no successor has been hired. The Frankston Dolphins are one of the few VFL clubs unaffiliated with an AFL team so cannot rely on financial support from such a ‘big brother’ club. In May the club decided to switch off all 27 of its pokies machines at its new function centre to make the club more “family friendly�.
AFL Victoria, which runs the VFL, issued a statement on Saturday confirming it is aware of Frankston’s financial situation and will work with the club. The Dolphins went down away from home to North Ballarat 8.18 (66) to Frankston’s 8.8 (56) on Saturday in Jason ‘Pongo’ Pongracic’s 50th game for the team. The loss meant the team finished bottom of the league ladder but two wins this season was an improvement on a winless campaign last year.
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BLAIRGOWRIE • DROMANA • MORNINGTON • ROSEBUD • SEAFORD • TOORAK Mornington News 30 August 2016
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