State of Environment

Indicator 56 - Monthly fuel usage of the generator sets and boilers

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

Description

Indicator Definition: The quantity of fuel used by generator sets and boilers 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

Latitude (-54.6198 to -54.6198)
Longitude (158.8609 to 158.8609)
Latitude (-66.2818 to -66.2818)
Longitude (110.5276 to 110.5276)
Latitude (-67.6026 to -67.6026)
Longitude (62.8738 to 62.8738)
Latitude (-68.5766 to -68.5766)
Longitude (77.9673 to 77.9673)

Rationale For Indicator Selection: The amount of fuel used in Antarctica for power generation and heating is
proportional to environmental impact due to the emissions released.

Special Antarctic Blend (SAB), a light diesel like fuel, is used at the
stations to power the station generator sets, to provide heat through boilers,
and to run plant and equipment including the station incinerator and vehicles.
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-1993 to February-2016
Number of data points: 916

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

Hide graphs for Casey

Casey: Fuel usage

View graphs for Davis

View graphs for Macquarie Island

View graphs for Mawson

Data quality, interpretation and analysis of indicator data

'
Changes in the quantity of fuel used provide an indication of efficiencies in plant, energy saving strategies and/or an indication of the ambient temperature.
The fuel usage of the generator sets and boilers provides an indication of the energy requirements of the station. This is proportional to the mean temperature at the time, but also provides an indication of the success of energy reduction strategies over time.
'

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 Oct 2001

The graphs show the typical season variation of fuel consumption throughout a year. An interesting feature of consumption at the continental stations is the twin peaks- one occurring in April and the other in July. The charts show that consumption has decreased at Mawson as a result of the decommissioning of the old station buildings and improvements in building heating and ventilation initiated by the Building Monitoring and Control System.
Fuel consumption has been stable at Davis, while Casey consumption has increased following a year when extreme measures had to be taken to reduce consumption when a resupply of fuel failed to take place.

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

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 7 - Monthly mean of three-hourly wind speeds (m/s)

SOE Indicator 48 - Station and ship person days

SOE Indicator 57 - Monthly incinerator fuel usage of Australian Antarctic Stations

SOE Indicator 58 - Monthly total of fuel used by vehicles at Australian Antarctic Stations

SOE Indicator 59 - Monthly electricity usage at Australian Antarctic Stations

SOE Indicator 60 - Total flight hours in the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) by Australian helicopters and fixed wing aircraft

SOE Indicator 61 - Total potable water consumption at Australian Antarctic Stations

SOE Indicator 65 - Station footprint for 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
Fuel usage	litres	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_generator_boiler_fuel_usage
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