ARENA has provided Evoenergy with $2.05 million in funding to research and test the impact of distributed energy resources on Canberra’s evolving energy market.
The project will involve working in close collaboration with Schneider Electric, GreenSync, and Withywindle as the knowledge sharing partner, and will explore the effect that distributed energy resources such as solar photovoltaics (PV), battery installations and electric vehicles have on the electricity network, and how these resources can be used by customers to their full potential.
Evoenergy Acting General Manager, Fiona Wright, said, “Over the past ten years we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of distributed energy resources in our network 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 distributed energy resources in an increasingly decentralised grid.
“We see a future where the role of the network changes to providing a more proactive and flexible platform based approach to balancing electricity demand and supply, rather than building more poles and wires which is the common solution in a traditional network.”
Schneider Electric is a global leader in energy management and automation and will build on their existing Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) at Evoenergy with their Distributed Energy Resource Management (DERMs) platform.
The platform will work with the ADMS to define and inform which energy resources to dispatch to the grid to maximise its performance, and ensure that the network operates within safe operating limits.
GreenSync’s deX platform will provide additional tools to Evoenergy, including the ability to contract services from virtual power plants to manage network constraints.
The deX platform will also help Evoenergy to facilitate dynamic use of the network, enabling Evoenergy customers to get more out of their assets and export more energy when there’s low network congestion.
Schneider Electric Vice President, Energy, Simon Mouat, said, “As a global business we’re excited to work with Evoenergy in one of the most advanced electricity networks in Australia to define the optimal management of distributed energy resources and maximise the network’s performance.”
GreenSync CEO, Dr Phil Blythe, said, “With Canberra’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 be part of a network solution.”
The project will run for 18 months with the final results expected to be released in early 2021.
For more information about this project, click here.
