EnergyAustralia Demand Response Program
- $8.36m Funded by ARENA
- $29.24m Total project cost
Summary
The EnergyAustralia Demand Response Program (DR) program is one of 10 flagship projects supported by the joint ARENA and AEMO $35.7 million DR Initiative, along with support from the NSW Government.
The program began in December 2017 and involves the deployment of 18 MW of DR in NSW, increasing to 20 MW in years two and three. The program also involves 20 MW of DR in VIC/SA in year one, increasing to 30 MW in years two and three.
During times of critically low reserves, AEMO will call upon EnergyAustralia to deliver the reserve capacity through a combination of direct load control and behavioural demand response.
Key results
- EnergyAustralia ran its first large scale residential behavioural demand response test event in November 2020 with almost 100,000 customers invited to participate. Under the trial, EnergyAustralia removed 55 MW from the grid against a target of 50 MW.
- Only 6% of customers chose to opt out of participating in the test event, demonstrating that customers understand the benefits of participating and can collectively support the grid when there is a need.
- EnergyAustralia also successfully trialled a behavioural demand response product for small business customers, which was based on the PowerResponse residential product. Through these programs and others including battery VPP and C&I initiatives, EnergyAustralia’s participation in the ARENA Demand Response program will improve customer value and the energy landscape for years to come.
Learn more
Video: What is the EnergyAustralia Demand Response Program?
EnergyAustralia’s Demand Response program is one of 10 flagship projects supported by the joint ARENA and AEMO $35.7 million DR Initiative, along with support from the NSW Government.
Report: Demand Response Trial Test 6 December 2020
This Knowledge Sharing report describes the second year of EnergyAustralia’s Demand Response Project until December 2020
Report: Demand Response Trial Test 5 June 2020
This report is for the period between July 2019 to May 2020.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance June 2019
This report is for the period between May 2019 to June 2019.
Report: Demand Response Trial Test 4 December 2019
This Knowledge Sharing report describes the second year of EnergyAustralia’s Demand Response Project.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance January 2019
This report provides an overview of the demand response provided by EnergyAustralia across New South Wales and Victoria for the ARENA Demand Response Trial. The knowledge shared is for the period between November 2018 to January 2019.
Media Release: AEMO and ARENA Demand Response Trial to Provide 200 Megawatts of Emergency Reserves for Extreme Peaks
ARENA and AEMO jointly announced 10 pilot projects have been awarded funding under the demand response initiative to manage electricity supply during extreme peaks.
How the project works
The EnergyAustralia Demand Response Program project sees demand response working with household, commercial and industrial customers to deliver reserve capacity. In exchange for participating in DR events, customers are enrolled in incentive programs and receive a benefit for their efforts.
EnergyAustralia is leveraging the strengths of existing DR knowledge and technologies to provide tailor-made services to household, commercial and industrial customers. This includes emerging DR mechanisms, such as voluntary behavioural demand response, direct load control, and on-site generation and battery storage. A key success has been establishing commercial-scale behavioural demand response at multiple locations with different capabilities under a single unified platform. EnergyAustralia is also trialling the additional conversion of existing diesel gensets to 100% renewable biofuels at a commercial scale.
Area of innovation
The success of EnergyAustralia’s DR project is not committed to a specific technology, rather it leverages the strengths of many options to fit the needs of customers. By trialling multiple, fit-for-purpose approaches, EnergyAustralia hope to unlock mutual benefits for households, larger-scale customers, and retailers alike.
Benefit
The program will help to provide insight into consumer engagement in demand response activities, and whether demand response can assist in maintaining a stable electricity grid in the National Electricity Market.
Note: Funding for this project is inclusive of NSW, VIC and SA.
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