Renewable energy resources are playing an increasing role in Australia’s electricity sector. By the end of January 2019, just over two million rooftop PV systems had been installed with a rated output of just over 8.1 GW1.
Report extract
Renewable energy resources are playing an increasing role in Australia’s electricity sector. By the end of January 2019, just over two million rooftop PV systems had been installed with a rated output of just over 8.1 GW1. In the 2016-17 financial year large-scale solar and wind plants accounted for 5.1 per cent of all electricity entering the National Electricity Market’s (NEM’s) transmission system2. Those plants accounted for an even larger percentage of the installed capacity in the NEM (excluding rooftop PV).
As the mix of electricity generation changes to a higher level of renewables, Australia’s electricity system will need to continue to provide secure, reliable electricity with more diverse and distributed energy sources. A flexible and responsive set of demand side resources, combined with appropriate storage, will be an integral element in managing an energy system increasingly powered by renewable energy. Demand response (DR) can play a role in this regard.
DR is a way of enhancing energy reserves by curbing energy use. This can be done through avenues such as behavioural change, manual and remote control of load and on-site generation curtailment. There are four roles DR can play in the power market:
- wholesale demand response
- emergency demand response
- ancillary services
- network demand response.