The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced a trial of an online energy marketplace to test the concept on Canberra’s energy grid.
Chief Executive of ARENA, Darren Miller said the $4.12 million project with Evoenergy to trial the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) online would allow customers in Canberra to make the most of their “consumer energy”.
“Evoenergy’s trial will help to maximise the amount of distributed energy that the network can accommodate, while maintaining the stability of the system,” Mr Miller said.
“This project will utilise two leading industry platforms to demonstrate a coordinated approach to DER management.”
He said Evoenergy, working in partnership with Schneider Electric and GreenSync, would research and test the effect that the integration of DER was having on Canberra’s grid, allowing the network to better support the connection of further consumer-owned rooftop solar, home batteries, small appliances, home energy management systems and electric vehicles.
General Manager of Evoenergy, Fiona Wright said the market had seen a dramatic increase in the number of DER over the past 10 years, which has changed the way energy flows between homes and businesses.
“This project is exciting because it will give us a better understanding of how we can unlock the potential of DER in an increasingly decentralised grid,” Ms Wright said.
She said the trial would integrate Evoenergy’s existing operating systems with GreenSync’s Decentralised Energy Exchange (deX) platform and enrol DER assets into a simulated virtual power plant.
“This will allow Evoenergy to better manage DER within its network and, in the future, allow customers to be paid for providing services to the network through their DER assets.”
Chief Executive of GreenSync, Phil Blythe said Canberra was an ideal testing location for the trial.
“With ACT’s ambitious renewable energy targets driving the uptake of solar and electric vehicles, this is an ideal network environment for us to demonstrate the growing capabilities of smart energy technology, where customer-owned energy resources can actively participate in providing network services for commercial value,” Dr Blythe said.
He said the project was expected to run for 18 months, with final results to be released in early 2021.
