Latest news with #Contact
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Upgraded Very Large Array Telescope Will Spot Baby Solar Systems—If It's Funded
New Mexico's Plains of San Agustin are otherworldly: Silence, sand and sharp plants reign on the valley floor. Knobbly volcanic rock rises above. Pronghorns' legs and jackrabbits' ears break up the landscape. And so, too, does one of the world's largest telescopes. The plains house the aptly named Very Large Array (VLA)—a radio telescope made of 27 different antennas, each of which looks like a home satellite dish on steroids. In the otherwise empty desert, they spread into a Y shape that can extend 22 miles end-to-end. When the antennas are pointed at the same thing in the sky at the same time, they function together as one large telescope, simulating an instrument as wide as the distance between the dishes. In this case, then, images from the VLA have as much resolution as they would if it were a single telescope 22 miles wide: high definition, in other words. The VLA became iconic, and inspirational to a generation of astronomers, thanks to the movie Contact, in which Jodie Foster's character uses the array to hear an alien communication. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] The VLA's antennas, the true stars of the film, simultaneously look like they don't belong in the landscape and also like they've always been here. They haven't, of course, but their construction began in the 1970s, making the VLA the oldest instrument in the portfolio of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). This federally-funded organization builds, maintains and operates radio telescopes that any astronomer—regardless of their institutional affiliation or citizenship—can apply to use. But the VLA, now in its middle age, is due for a replacement. After all these decades, astronomers want something shiny, fully modern and more capable: a new build with all the bells and whistles rather than a charming old Colonial that's been remodeled piecemeal. NRAO is working on that, planning the VLA's proposed successor: the Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). (Astronomers may be scientifically creative, but they are linguistic straight shooters.) On a Friday afternoon in late April, the organization gathered political leaders together, alongside scientists and engineers, to unveil a prototype antenna—one that will be cloned a couple of hundred times to make up the future ngVLA. It loomed on the plains just beyond the partygoers, standing alongside its predecessors, the old and the new in stereo with each other. 'The amount that technology has advanced since the VLA was created is amazing,' says Jill Malusky, NRAO's news and public information manager. 'A VLA antenna and an ngVLA antenna look very different because they are.' Guests wandered near the antennas, checking out a spread of food that included a sculpture, made in the medium of watermelon, of a radio telescope antenna. A chamber quartet played in the background, a single fern fronting them, with an open bar lubricating the event. It was fancy—for science. But for astronomers, the ngVLA is a big deal, and the event was intended, in part, to bolster the political support needed to make it happen. At the moment, it's a proposed project—and still requires final funding. 'Having a physical antenna we can point to, and test, to prove the value of this project is such a milestone,' Malusky says. 'It makes it all more real.' Representing an orders-of-magnitude improvement to the VLA that would complement other radio telescopes in the U.S. and abroad, the ambitious project has the enthusiastic yes of the astronomical community. But whether big-science telescopes, radio or otherwise, will survive the current funding environment remains a dark matter. That uncertainty is part of why NRAO's event elicited a spectrum of emotions for Malusky. 'It's a mix of excitement and trepidation,' she says. 'Can we get people invested in the potential of a major project that is still gathering resources and just over a decade to fruition?' That Friday afternoon, Tony Beasley, director of NRAO, stood at the front of a hardy event tent and faced the prototype. Its dish was made up of shiny panels assembled into an octagon. From its bottom edge, supportive struts held up a secondary reflecting surface and a receiver (basically the radio version of an optical telescope's camera) that looked a bit like the spaceship Foster's character boarded in Contact. The antenna, about as wide as a bowling lane is long, has been designed to collect radio waves from space—beamed from stars that are being born or dying, the stuff between stars, and more. As radio light comes in, it will hit the main dish and bounce up to the secondary reflector and then the receiver, which will catch the waves and turn them into digital signals that will then be sent to computers. As a start, the prototype dish will hook up to VLA's aging ones and gather data alongside them—it will be an apprentice of sorts. 'You see one antenna out there,' said Beasley, directing the audience's attention beyond the tent, which was being shaken by the wind to such an extent that people also cast their eyes upward to assess its structural integrity. NRAO ultimately plans to build 262 more antennas and spread them across the U.S., with their numbers concentrated in the Southwest. Of those antennas, Beasley continued, '192 of them will be visible from where I'm standing right here.' Together, the ngVLA's antennas could pick up a cell-phone signal from 500 billion kilometers (more than 310 billion miles) away (although that wouldn't be the most likely find). That means it could detect an Android embedded in the Oort Cloud, the collection of comets that makes up the outer part of the solar system. The future telescope's resolution should be high enough to pass a no-glasses eye exam in New York City if the chart of letters were placed in Los Angeles. That precision gives it scientific latitude, allowing it to address some of astronomers' highest-priority questions, such as how planets come to be and how solar systems like ours form. 'You could, say, probe a cloud that is forming planets and find out where the planets are—like individual gaps in the cloud that the planets are carving out,' says David Kaplan, an astronomer and physics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Of all the radio telescopes out there, the ngVLA would be the planetary 'flagship' for star and planet formation, Kaplan says. At high radio frequencies and big antenna separations, 'it would be the only game in town.' The ngVLA will also look for the organic molecules and chemical conditions of new solar systems that might someday spur life. It will show how galaxies come together and evolve, use the Milky Way's center to test ideas about how gravity works and investigate how stars develop. And it will hunt black holes and their outbursts. Given those varied abilities, the telescope was highly ranked in astronomers' 'decadal survey,' a yearslong process in which the astronomical community takes stock of its most valued scientific questions and assesses which future telescopes are best suited to find some answers. Funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), which bankrolls NRAO, typically follows the survey's recommendations. The survey recommended the ngVLA as a top priority. 'It can change the landscape,' says Matt Dobbs, a physicist at McGill University, who studies the origin and evolution of the universe and worked on the survey alongside Kaplan. NRAO hopes to start construction on the ngVLA in 2029, with initial operations beginning in 2033. The possibility is a bright spot for American radio astronomy. The VLA is more than 40 years old; the Green Bank Telescope, completed in 2001, is more than 20. And NRAO's latest instrument, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, opened 12 years ago. The latter two, though not new, aren't going anywhere, as far as anyone knows. But they do different kinds of scientific analyses than the VLA does and the ngVLA will. The new telescope does, though, have a whippersnapper nipping at its heels. Another future radio observatory, called the Deep Synoptic Array 2000 (DSA-2000), is planning an order of magnitude more dishes than the ngVLA—2,000 of them. But each will be only around 16 feet across, whereas ngVLA's dishes will measure 60 feet. DSA-2000 will also work at a different radio frequency range than the ngVLA. DSA-2000's development is also moving faster than that of the VLA's successor, though, in large part, that is because the former has relied on private funding more than federal resources, as the ngVLA's prototyping has. In taking a step back from dependence on the NSF, the DSA-2000 crew might be on to something. Just days before the ngVLA ceremony, the NSF canceled more than 400 active grants; one day before, the agency's then director Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned. 'This is a pivotal moment for our nation in terms of global competitiveness,' he said in his goodbye letter. 'NSF is an extremely important investment to make U.S. scientific dominance a reality. We must not lose our competitive edge.' No one knows what the future of NSF-funded astronomy, let alone NSF-funded radio astronomy, looks like. President Donald Trump hasn't said much about that particular domain yet. But not building the ngVLA could put that edge in jeopardy. Dobbs, though, holds out hope for the U.S.'s role in radio astronomy's future, in part because of the propulsion of its past. 'The United States has everything it needs to make that project a reality,' he adds. Whether it will do so, though, requires gathering more data from the future. After all, it's bad luck to count your antennas before they hatch. Dobbs has been putting his focus on smaller radio telescopes, such as one called the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and its successor, acronymed CHORD. Both map how hydrogen was distributed in the early universe and detect fast radio bursts. Their antennas are cheap(ish), their overall footprint small, and their ambition is limited to specific science—in this case, gas maps. At the prototype-antenna unveiling, then, it made sense that there was a liminal feeling to what was otherwise a celebratory gathering. And it was conspicuous that representatives from NSF, the agency that would fund the telescope's construction and operation, weren't there, which Beasley said was the case 'for various reasons.' Chris Smith, interim director of the NSF's division of astronomical sciences, did send a letter to be read to the wined-and-dined crowd. 'NSF funded this development not just to ensure the technical feasibility of the advanced capabilities of ngVLA,' he wrote. It also supported the prototype as 'a way of creating new innovations in the field of radio astronomy.' And that may be true. But those who gathered at NRAO's event also hope, specifically, that the ngVLA, a receptacle for optimism about the future of radio astronomy in the U.S., will sprout from this dry ground. 'It starts with a single step,' Beasley said at the event—in this case, a single antenna.
Scientific American
3 days ago
- Science
- Scientific American
Futuristic Radio Telescope Will Spot Baby Solar Systems—If It's Funded
New Mexico's Plains of San Agustin are otherworldly: Silence, sand and sharp plants reign on the valley floor. Knobbly volcanic rock rises above. Pronghorns' legs and jackrabbits' ears break up the landscape. And so, too, does one of the world's largest telescopes. The plains house the aptly named Very Large Array (VLA)—a radio telescope made of 27 different antennas, each of which looks like a home satellite dish on steroids. In the otherwise empty desert, they spread into a Y shape that can extend 22 miles end-to-end. When the antennas are pointed at the same thing in the sky at the same time, they function together as one large telescope, simulating an instrument as wide as the distance between the dishes. In this case, then, images from the VLA have as much resolution as they would if it were a single telescope 22 miles wide: high definition, in other words. The VLA became iconic, and inspirational to a generation of astronomers, thanks to the movie Contact, in which Jodie Foster's character uses the array to hear an alien communication. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. The VLA's antennas, the true stars of the film, simultaneously look like they don't belong in the landscape and also like they've always been here. They haven't, of course, but their construction began in the 1970s, making the VLA the oldest instrument in the portfolio of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). This federally-funded organization builds, maintains and operates radio telescopes that any astronomer—regardless of their institutional affiliation or citizenship—can apply to use. But the VLA, now in its middle age, is due for a replacement. After all these decades, astronomers want something shiny, fully modern and more capable: a new build with all the bells and whistles rather than a charming old Colonial that's been remodeled piecemeal. NRAO is working on that, planning the VLA's proposed successor: the Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). (Astronomers may be scientifically creative, but they are linguistic straight shooters.) On a Friday afternoon in late April, the organization gathered political leaders together, alongside scientists and engineers, to unveil a prototype antenna—one that will be cloned a couple of hundred times to make up the future ngVLA. It loomed on the plains just beyond the partygoers, standing alongside its predecessors, the old and the new in stereo with each other. 'The amount that technology has advanced since the VLA was created is amazing,' says Jill Malusky, NRAO's news and public information manager. 'A VLA antenna and an ngVLA antenna look very different because they are.' Guests wandered near the antennas, checking out a spread of food that included a sculpture, made in the medium of watermelon, of a radio telescope antenna. A chamber quartet played in the background, a single fern fronting them, with an open bar lubricating the event. It was fancy—for science. But for astronomers, the ngVLA is a big deal, and the event was intended, in part, to bolster the political support needed to make it happen. At the moment, it's a proposed project—and still requires final funding. 'Having a physical antenna we can point to, and test, to prove the value of this project is such a milestone,' Malusky says. 'It makes it all more real.' Representing an orders-of-magnitude improvement to the VLA that would complement other radio telescopes in the U.S. and abroad, the ambitious project has the enthusiastic yes of the astronomical community. But whether big-science telescopes, radio or otherwise, will survive the current funding environment remains a dark matter. That uncertainty is part of why NRAO's event elicited a spectrum of emotions for Malusky. 'It's a mix of excitement and trepidation,' she says. 'Can we get people invested in the potential of a major project that is still gathering resources and just over a decade to fruition?' A Vanguard Antenna That Friday afternoon, Tony Beasley, director of NRAO, stood at the front of a hardy event tent and faced the prototype. Its dish was made up of shiny panels assembled into an octagon. From its bottom edge, supportive struts held up a secondary reflecting surface and a receiver (basically the radio version of an optical telescope's camera) that looked a bit like the spaceship Foster's character boarded in Contact. The antenna, about as wide as a bowling lane is long, has been designed to collect radio waves from space—beamed from stars that are being born or dying, the stuff between stars, and more. As radio light comes in, it will hit the main dish and bounce up to the secondary reflector and then the receiver, which will catch the waves and turn them into digital signals that will then be sent to computers. As a start, the prototype dish will hook up to VLA's aging ones and gather data alongside them—it will be an apprentice of sorts. 'You see one antenna out there,' said Beasley, directing the audience's attention beyond the tent, which was being shaken by the wind to such an extent that people also cast their eyes upward to assess its structural integrity. NRAO ultimately plans to build 262 more antennas and spread them across the U.S., with their numbers concentrated in the Southwest. Of those antennas, Beasley continued, '192 of them will be visible from where I'm standing right here.' Together, the ngVLA's antennas could pick up a cell-phone signal from 500 billion kilometers (more than 310 billion miles) away (although that wouldn't be the most likely find). That means it could detect an Android embedded in the Oort Cloud, the collection of comets that makes up the outer part of the solar system. The future telescope's resolution should be high enough to pass a no-glasses eye exam in New York City if the chart of letters were placed in Los Angeles. That precision gives it scientific latitude, allowing it to address some of astronomers' highest-priority questions, such as how planets come to be and how solar systems like ours form. 'You could, say, probe a cloud that is forming planets and find out where the planets are—like individual gaps in the cloud that the planets are carving out,' says David Kaplan, an astronomer and physics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Of all the radio telescopes out there, the ngVLA would be the planetary 'flagship' for star and planet formation, Kaplan says. At high radio frequencies and big antenna separations, 'it would be the only game in town.' The ngVLA will also look for the organic molecules and chemical conditions of new solar systems that might someday spur life. It will show how galaxies come together and evolve, use the Milky Way's center to test ideas about how gravity works and investigate how stars develop. And it will hunt black holes and their outbursts. Given those varied abilities, the telescope was highly ranked in astronomers' 'decadal survey,' a yearslong process in which the astronomical community takes stock of its most valued scientific questions and assesses which future telescopes are best suited to find some answers. Funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), which bankrolls NRAO, typically follows the survey's recommendations. The survey recommended the ngVLA as a top priority. 'It can change the landscape,' says Matt Dobbs, a physicist at McGill University, who studies the origin and evolution of the universe and worked on the survey alongside Kaplan. Telescope Prospects NRAO hopes to start construction on the ngVLA in 2029, with initial operations beginning in 2033. The possibility is a bright spot for American radio astronomy. The VLA is more than 40 years old; the Green Bank Telescope, completed in 2001, is more than 20. And NRAO's latest instrument, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, opened 12 years ago. The latter two, though not new, aren't going anywhere, as far as anyone knows. But they do different kinds of scientific analyses than the VLA does and the ngVLA will. The new telescope does, though, have a whippersnapper nipping at its heels. Another future radio observatory, called the Deep Synoptic Array 2000 (DSA-2000), is planning an order of magnitude more dishes than the ngVLA—2,000 of them. But each will be only around 16 feet across, whereas ngVLA's dishes will measure 60 feet. DSA-2000 will also work at a different radio frequency range than the ngVLA. DSA-2000's development is also moving faster than that of the VLA's successor, though, in large part, that is because the former has relied on private funding more than federal resources, as the ngVLA's prototyping has. In taking a step back from dependence on the NSF, the DSA-2000 crew might be on to something. Just days before the ngVLA ceremony, the NSF canceled more than 400 active grants; one day before, the agency's then director Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned. 'This is a pivotal moment for our nation in terms of global competitiveness,' he said in his goodbye letter. 'NSF is an extremely important investment to make U.S. scientific dominance a reality. We must not lose our competitive edge.' No one knows what the future of NSF-funded astronomy, let alone NSF-funded radio astronomy, looks like. President Donald Trump hasn't said much about that particular domain yet. But not building the ngVLA could put that edge in jeopardy. Dobbs, though, holds out hope for the U.S.'s role in radio astronomy's future, in part because of the propulsion of its past. 'The United States has everything it needs to make that project a reality,' he adds. Whether it will do so, though, requires gathering more data from the future. After all, it's bad luck to count your antennas before they hatch. Dobbs has been putting his focus on smaller radio telescopes, such as one called the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and its successor, acronymed CHORD. Both map how hydrogen was distributed in the early universe and detect fast radio bursts. Their antennas are cheap(ish), their overall footprint small, and their ambition is limited to specific science—in this case, gas maps. At the prototype-antenna unveiling, then, it made sense that there was a liminal feeling to what was otherwise a celebratory gathering. And it was conspicuous that representatives from NSF, the agency that would fund the telescope's construction and operation, weren't there, which Beasley said was the case 'for various reasons.' Chris Smith, interim director of the NSF's division of astronomical sciences, did send a letter to be read to the wined-and-dined crowd. 'NSF funded this development not just to ensure the technical feasibility of the advanced capabilities of ngVLA,' he wrote. It also supported the prototype as 'a way of creating new innovations in the field of radio astronomy.' And that may be true. But those who gathered at NRAO's event also hope, specifically, that the ngVLA, a receptacle for optimism about the future of radio astronomy in the U.S., will sprout from this dry ground. 'It starts with a single step,' Beasley said at the event—in this case, a single antenna.
Otago Daily Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Contact makes little headway on appeal
More than two months after they were turned down from building a large wind farm at Slopedown, any progress Contact Energy have made in moving the project back on the agenda and getting it built appears to be glacial. The power giant was turned down by a panel set up under Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020 and run by the Environment Protection Authority. The 55-turbine wind farm, on a remote but prominent range of hills near Wyndham, was expected to create up to 240 jobs during construction, and power 150,000 homes when operational. Contact was "gutted" with the decision which was released in the middle of March and immediately said it would appeal. It said it had spent $20 million in developing the project and would be prepared to spend more to get the project approved. The project was turned down because of concerns over the project's adverse effects on indigenous plants and animals — including the critically endangered New Zealand long-tailed bat. The panel questioned whether the impact could be "properly mitigated" during and after the project. Under the Act, the only way to appeal was on points of law. Contact said last week it had filed an appeal to the High Court in April but no date had been set for a hearing. When the proposal was turned down, the power company said the wind farm was a good project for the district and for New Zealand. Contact made the decision to re-apply for consent under the updated Fast-track Approvals Act 2024. It said last week its application was still being assessed. Contact had been aggressive in wanting to build the wind farm, saying it was one of many renewable projects which the country needed as it strived to help reach the aspirational target set by the Government of 100% renewable electricity by 2030. The Electricity Authority in a memo last week said hydro storage was likely to remain low, which will push wholesale spot prices up. However, fuel supply and generation capacity will be sufficient to meet national demand this winter. Transpower, the national grid operator warned last week there was a higher risk of electricity outages starting in winter 2026. The national grid operator's draft security of supply assessment predicted an elevated risk of shortages will arrive four years earlier than thought as recently as a year ago. It found solar, wind and battery storage is not coming online fast enough to make up for dwindling supplies in the country's gas fields. The assessment found, if every electricity generation project in the pipeline was built, supply would be much more reliable, but Transpower said there was a risk of some proposed solar, wind and battery projects falling over.
Scoop
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- Scoop
Contact Trials Innovative Solution To Enhance EV Charging
Press Release – Contact Energy Contact is piloting an EV Demand Flex programme. This will use technology to determine when energy demand is low and then automatically charge customers EVs. If there is a sudden increase in electricity demand, the technology will stop charging the • Contact launches pilot using innovative technology to make it easy for Electric Vehicle (EV) owners to charge their car when electricity demand is at its lowest. • The pilot aims to ease pressure on the national electricity grid as EV use increases1. • The pilot also aims to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels, supporting the decarbonisation of New Zealand. With the increasing number of EVs on New Zealand's roads, Contact Energy (Contact) is looking to ease pressure on the national electricity grid. This could also help EV drivers reduce the cost of charging their vehicles in the long-term. According to the Electric Vehicle Database's market stats, at the end of April 2025 more than 82,500 fully electric vehicles and 37,300 plug-in hybrids were in use in New Zealand. Charging an EV can increase a household's energy use by up to 30 percent says Powerswitch2. This can put a strain on the national electricity grid during periods of high energy demand, such as first thing in the morning or in the evening. To help reduce this, Contact is piloting an EV Demand Flex programme. This will use technology to determine when energy demand is low and then automatically charge customers' EVs. If there is a sudden increase in electricity demand, the technology will stop charging the vehicle until demand subsides. There are many benefits to this pilot, explains Contact's Acting Chief Retail Officer Michael Robertson. 'At scale, this technology would allow customers to charge their vehicles when demand is low, potentially helping them make savings on their power bill. It will also help ease pressure on the national grid, support New Zealand's energy supply, and reduce reliance on energy generated by fossil fuels,' says Michael. 'Pausing charging an EV, even for a short period of time, contributes to reducing high electricity demand, ensuring electricity goes where it is most needed. It's hard to predict on any given day when there will be an increase in energy demand and that's what makes the EV Demand Flex technology so innovative. 'Plus, our customers can rest easy knowing their EV will be charged to the level they want, ready for when they need it,' says Michael The pilot begins on Tuesday 3 June and may run up to a year. This will deliver valuable information about people's charging behaviours and enable Contact to finetune the EV Flex programme. If the pilot is successful, Contact will expand the programme. The EV Demand Flex pilot will run in addition to Contact's Hot Water Sorter programme, launched in April 2024. So far this has helped 14,000 Kiwi households to reduce their energy usage by turning their hot water cylinders off during peak hours. For the last four years Contact has also been offering 'Good' time of use electricity plans. These plans provide free power during times of low demand, such as at night or at the weekend, rewarding customers for taking pressure off the grid. More than 130,000 Contact customers are on one of the Good Plan range, and these customers have collectively benefited from 215 million hours of free power. Notes 1 Data from Electric Vehicle Database's April market stats shows more than 82,500 fully electric vehicles and 37,300 plug-in hybrids were in use in New Zealand. 2 An electric vehicle can typically increase household electricity use by around 20 to 30 percent according to data from Powerswitch, which can be found here:
Scoop
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- Scoop
Contact Trials Innovative Solution To Enhance EV Charging
Press Release – Contact Energy Contact is piloting an EV Demand Flex programme. This will use technology to determine when energy demand is low and then automatically charge customers EVs. If there is a sudden increase in electricity demand, the technology will stop charging the • Contact launches pilot using innovative technology to make it easy for Electric Vehicle (EV) owners to charge their car when electricity demand is at its lowest. • The pilot aims to ease pressure on the national electricity grid as EV use increases1. • The pilot also aims to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels, supporting the decarbonisation of New Zealand. With the increasing number of EVs on New Zealand's roads, Contact Energy (Contact) is looking to ease pressure on the national electricity grid. This could also help EV drivers reduce the cost of charging their vehicles in the long-term. According to the Electric Vehicle Database's market stats, at the end of April 2025 more than 82,500 fully electric vehicles and 37,300 plug-in hybrids were in use in New Zealand. Charging an EV can increase a household's energy use by up to 30 percent says Powerswitch2. This can put a strain on the national electricity grid during periods of high energy demand, such as first thing in the morning or in the evening. To help reduce this, Contact is piloting an EV Demand Flex programme. This will use technology to determine when energy demand is low and then automatically charge customers' EVs. If there is a sudden increase in electricity demand, the technology will stop charging the vehicle until demand subsides. There are many benefits to this pilot, explains Contact's Acting Chief Retail Officer Michael Robertson. 'At scale, this technology would allow customers to charge their vehicles when demand is low, potentially helping them make savings on their power bill. It will also help ease pressure on the national grid, support New Zealand's energy supply, and reduce reliance on energy generated by fossil fuels,' says Michael. 'Pausing charging an EV, even for a short period of time, contributes to reducing high electricity demand, ensuring electricity goes where it is most needed. It's hard to predict on any given day when there will be an increase in energy demand and that's what makes the EV Demand Flex technology so innovative. 'Plus, our customers can rest easy knowing their EV will be charged to the level they want, ready for when they need it,' says Michael The pilot begins on Tuesday 3 June and may run up to a year. This will deliver valuable information about people's charging behaviours and enable Contact to finetune the EV Flex programme. If the pilot is successful, Contact will expand the programme. The EV Demand Flex pilot will run in addition to Contact's Hot Water Sorter programme, launched in April 2024. So far this has helped 14,000 Kiwi households to reduce their energy usage by turning their hot water cylinders off during peak hours. For the last four years Contact has also been offering 'Good' time of use electricity plans. These plans provide free power during times of low demand, such as at night or at the weekend, rewarding customers for taking pressure off the grid. More than 130,000 Contact customers are on one of the Good Plan range, and these customers have collectively benefited from 215 million hours of free power. Notes 2 An electric vehicle can typically increase household electricity use by around 20 to 30 percent according to data from Powerswitch, which can be found here:
