Rockhampton, Australia --- (METERING.COM) --- February 8, 2010 - A consortium led by Queensland regional electricity distributor Ergon Energy has launched a bid for Au$100 million in federal funds to build a demonstration smart electricity grid for Australia.

Consortium partners include south-east Queensland electricity distributor ENERGEX and the Queensland government Office of Clean Energy.

An implementation agreement has also been signed with the Korean government owned Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) on the exchange of knowledge on smart grid technologies. A key element of the Queensland bid is the opportunities for knowledge transfer to developing Asian economies and the possible business opportunities this will create.

The Queensland Smart Communities bid, which aims to secure Au$100 million (US$89 million) in federal government funds, proposes to build a large scale smart grid demonstration project in Townsville, with several integrated smart grid projects at Zillmere (in Brisbane’s north) and Toowoomba.

The Smart Grid, Smart City project will deploy a commercial scale smart grid city in Australia in order to provide best practice demonstration and gather information and data to inform broader industry rollout.

The implementation agreement with KEPCO is to agree the process and scope of cooperation between the parties in the event the Queensland Smart Communities bid is successful. In-kind contributions from KEPCO will be based on its experience on Jeju Island.

Bidding for the project opened in November 2009 and the winning consortium will be announced in April (see Bidding opened for Australia’s Smart Grid, Smart City initiative). Pending contract negotiations, delivery of the project will commence in July 2010 and continue until June 2013.