State of Environment

Indicator 59 - Monthly electricity usage at Australian Antarctic Stations

Index: Description | Data | Custodian evaluation | Related resources | Parameters

Description

Indicator Definition
The amount of electricity (kWh) used at Casey, Davis, Mawson and Macquarie
Island stations as measured on a monthly basis and reported in the monthly
reports from the Station Plant Inspectors to the Kingston (Head Office)
Mechanical Supervisor.


Responsible organisation

Australian Antarctic Division ( Australia )

Custodians

No custodians.

Theme area

Human Settlements

Indicator type

Pressure

Criteria the indicator satisfies

The following 14 out of 15 criteria

1. Serve as a robust indicator of environmental change
2. Reflect a fundamental or highly-valued aspect of the environment or an important environmental issue
3. Be either national in scope or applicable to regional environmental issues of national significance
4. Provide an early warning of potential problems
5. Be capable of being monitored to provide statistically verifiable and reproducible data that shows trends over time and, preferably, apply to a broad range of environmental regions
6. Be scientifically credible
7. Be easy to understand
8. Be monitored with relative ease
9. Be cost-effective
10. Have relevance to policy and management needs
11. Contribute to monitoring of progress towards implementing commitments in nationally important environmental policies
12. Where possible and appropriate, facilitate community involvement
13. Contribute to the fulfillment of reporting obligations under international agreements
15. Where possible and appropriate, be consistent and comparable with other countries� and state and territory indicators

Date input

Monthly measurements

Monitoring location

Geographic coverage

Rationale For Indicator Selection
The amount of electricity used at a station is a reflection of the efficiency
of various electrical and systems and the amount of fuel used to generate this
electricity.


The amount of fuel used in Antarctica for electricity generation is
proportional to environmental impact due to the emissions.


The electricity usage of the station provides an indication of the relative
need for electrical power compared with the thermal load of the station.


Design and Strategy For Indicator Monitoring Program
Spatial scale: Australian Antarctic stations: Casey (lat 66 deg 16' 54.5" S,
long 110 deg 31' 39.4" E), Davis (lat 68 deg 34' 35.8" S,
long 77 deg 58' 02.6" E), Mawson (lat 67 deg 36' 09.7" S,
long 62 deg 52' 25.7" E) and Macquarie Island (lat 54 deg 37' 59.9" S,
long 158 deg 52' 59.9" E).


Frequency: Monthly reports


Measurement technique: The figures are obtained by direct reading of gauges on
the stations on a regular basis. The data is recorded in the Plant Inspectors
monthly reports.


Research Issues
In the future, it is planned to automate the collection of most of this data.


Data

Temporal range of the available data, as described by the metadata record, is from 01-Jan-1990 .

Timespan
January-1986 to February-2016
Number of data points
1432

To view or download any of the data, you must be logged in

Data quality, interpretation and analysis of indicator data

Data usage constraints

' This data set conforms to the PICCCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). '

Data access constraints

' Data arising from this project are available from the state of the environment indicator URL given below. '

Custodian evaluation

26 Jun 2002

A seasonal trend is visible in the Mawson and Macquarie Island graphs, but not in the Casey or Davis graphs. This may be a reflection of the generally lower wind speeds at these stations.

12 Nov 2002

Pressure scale - 4 - moderate external pressure on the environment, degradation documented
1 - undetectable external pressure on the environment
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
7 - extreme external pressure on the environment, degradation accelerating
State of Knowledge scale - 5
1 - Poor
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
7 - Excellent

For definitions of the Scale categories, consult the Explanation of the Status Categories

Related resources

Project 220 - Energy Management at Casey Station
Project 796 - Station Electrical Maintenance
Scientific Bibliography 17276 - Harrington, Philip (1999) Government Support for the Renewable Energy Industry in Australia. Proceedings of the 1999 Australian Wind Energy Conference: Keynote Address.
SOE Indicator 1 - Monthly mean air temperatures at Australian Antarctic Stations
SOE Indicator 2 - Highest monthly air temperatures at Australian Antarctic Stations
SOE Indicator 3 - Lowest monthly air temperatures at Australian Antarctic Stations
SOE Indicator 4 - Monthly mean lower stratospheric temperatures above Australian Antarctic Stations
SOE Indicator 47 - Number and nature of incidents resulting in environmental impact
SOE Indicator 48 - Station and ship person days
SOE Indicator 56 - Monthly fuel usage of the generator sets and boilers
SOE Indicator 76 - Monthly fuel usage of ships travelling to Australian Antarctic Stations

Parameters

The properties link can be used to view details of the parameters measured for this indicator.

Parameter Name Unit of measure Properties
Station electricity usage kWh Properties

The following parameters and/or sensor notes are from the metadata record.

Parameters

EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS > FOSSIL FUEL BURNING
EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS > INDUSTRIAL EMISSIONS
EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > INFRASTRUCTURE > BUILDINGS
EARTH SCIENCE > HUMAN DIMENSIONS > INFRASTRUCTURE > ELECTRICITY

Related URLs

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=SOE_SFU
Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/portal/download_file.cfm?file_id=1272
Download page for Australian Antarctic Data Centre

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/soe/display_indicator.cfm?soe_id=56
Display Antarctic State of Environment Indicator 56

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/soe/display_indicator.cfm?soe_id=57
Display Antarctic State of Environment Indicator 57

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/soe/display_indicator.cfm?soe_id=58
Display Antarctic State of Environment Indicator 58