Ollie Hill, New Zealand country manager for French multinational Schneider Electric, said New Zealand had the ingredients to be a clean energy leader, but getting there may take more than building new generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will also require smarter use of energy, better visibility over demand, more flexibility across the system, and practical investment in storage, efficiency and resilience,\u201d he told the Herald.<\/p>\n
Schneider, which specialises in energy management systems for big industrial sites and process automation, bought New Zealand electrical components maker PDL in 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cData centres are big for us, and the dairy sector is big,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fascinating time because technology is changing how energy works.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople talk about how much energy they [data centres] use but they can produce energy as well, because they have huge generators to make sure they can run without the grid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people who can be active participants in the system if we get the smarts right and the settings right, and the utilities give enough value for what they can do on the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grid stability is key, along with balancing demand and supply, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo with all of these things, you just need to get a lot smarter because you can\u2019t have the old system anymore, so that\u2019s a big area that we can play in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill said New Zealand had one of the best geographies in the world for renewable energy \u2013 hydro, wind, solar and geothermal.<\/p>\n
Against that background, the country had potential to \u201cexport\u201d that energy through data centres.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you bring data centres in, people will pay you for that energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand offered opportunity for data centres because of its sustainable energy supply and cooler temperatures.<\/p>\n
He noted the community pushback on data centres, particularly in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is a risk that we take a US narrative, or another country\u2019s narrative, on data centres and apply it to New Zealand,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of things over there happen at breakneck speed, and they\u2019re using a lot of water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schneider Electric’s Ollie Hill says New Zealand has the ingredients to be a clean energy leader.<\/p>\n
Data centres built here tend to be \u201cclosed loop\u201d \u2013 when the water is circulated, cooled and then reused.<\/p>\n
Hill noted the surge in construction of renewables projects as New Zealand scrambles to add generation in the face of sharply declining gas supplies, and that a number of solar buildouts were underway.<\/p>\n