Smart village in NSW

In a very smart move which is possibly an Australian first, the NSW Government has launched a Smart Village in Newington, Sydney's west.

Within the 1,000 homes in the village, appliances can be switched on and off remotely using an iPhone, people can move around on plug-in electric scooters and energy costs and carbon emissions are graphed minute-by-minute on individual household webpages.

The living, breathing trial where ordinary households and families are having their homes and electrical set-up retrofitted with the latest and greatest technology available will give residents a detailed picture of their energy and water use, including costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

The traditional electricity network will be transformed and for the first time, new smart technologies will allow two-way communication between a series of smart devices on the network and in homes, to deliver instant information about energy and water use. 

The trial will also give EnergyAustralia and Sydney Water instant information about their networks to allow for improved power and water supply due to faster fault location and repair, and more targeted preventive maintenance.