Electricity network owner, Evoenergy, is encouraging the community to be part of Canberra’s sustainable energy journey after conducting the most comprehensive demand management (DM) trials in the country.
Branch Manager Asset and Network Performance Leylann Hinch said seven trials have been conducted over six months, producing some strong results and valuable learnings.
“Our trials have involved three different community groupings: Local residents moderating their electricity use in response to SMS text requests; contracted commercial customers curtailing load or switching to alternative power; and people with PV solar battery systems being part of a virtual power plant (VPP) dispatching renewable electricity into the grid.
“We recently tested all three DM techniques simultaneously, including the VPP made up of more than 400 residential battery storage systems.
"This was Australia's largest VPP of residential solar battery systems. It was also unique to involve simultaneously engaging with three different technology providers - Reposit Power, Evergen and ActewAGL.
“As far as we know, it was the world’s largest VPP of residential solar battery systems. It was also unique to involve simultaneously engaging with three different technology providers – Reposit Power, Evergen and ActewAGL.
“We are now very confident that Evoenergy will be able to operate a modern network that is safe, reliable and efficient, while accommodating short term peaks as well as increasing embedded generation, two-way energy flows and urban growth,” said Leylann.
The residents who participated in Evoenergy’s SMS trials made a smaller, but equally important contribution.
“In our three SMS trials, the combined actions of residents in each cluster successfully registered on our network control system. While it was a small impact, it demonstrated that residents could make a significant contribution when scaled up across Canberra,” said Leylann.
By 2020 the ACT will have solar energy storage systems in more than 5,000 dwellings, capable of generating up to 36MW or 5% of the ACT’s peak load.
“This would be double the amount of load we curtailed with the support of the community which prevented load shedding during the heatwave crisis in summer 2017.
“Our DM trials have proven the concept that when our Demand Management Program is scaled up we will be able to avoid load shedding in almost all circumstances,” said Leylann.
Evoenergy