ARENA has released a report on the results and recommendations from the Western Australia Government’s Project Symphony trial, a virtual power plant (VPP) pilot delivered under the government’s Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Roadmap.
The two-year pilot was centred in the Perth region of Southern River, where more than 50 per cent of households have rooftop solar – making it one of Perth’s largest solar districts.
The Project Symphony Orchestration Pilot trialed the orchestration of customer-owned DER such as rooftop solar, batteries and major appliances to participate in a future energy market. Project Symphony sought to orchestrate the DER of around 500 WA homes and 900 assets as a VPP.
The project was delivered in partnership by Western Power, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), Synergy and Energy Policy WA (Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety).
The final report presents the 18 recommendations found whilst assessing the viability of DER orchestration. These actionable recommendations are highlighted through the framework of four pillars, being technical, customer, value and policy and regulation.
The Western Australian Government released the DER Roadmap as part of its broader Energy Transformation Strategy in 2019.
Originally comprising 36 core actions, the DER Roadmap is an Australian-first plan to learn, plan, and implement the changes necessary for a high-DER future designed to benefit all electricity customers.
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