PLUS ES South Australia Demand Flexibility Trial

Summary

Need

Despite being the largest load for most households and the NEM’s most predictable load, controlled load (CL) hot water had not before been utilised as a flexible load to address minimum demand challenges at this scale.

The trial involved development of a technical enabler for retailers to dynamically control hot water load in near real time.

The aim is to allow retailers to target periods of low wholesale pricing, high renewable energy generation, and/or shift HW load to access lower wholesale pricing and maintain grid security.

This solution would address challenges posed by midday demand and generation imbalance and would drive smart meter adoption in the market.

Action

The Project included the development of two software platforms:

• A Load Management Portal for retailers to view, manage and execute commands for eligible controlled loads.
• An Application Programming Interface (API) which allows retailers to integrate their decisioning platforms with the smart meter for the purposes of near real time orchestration.

The developed technology aimed to support two core use cases:

• Planned demand shifting: shift HW loads dynamically for a predefined set period. Use cases for this may include shifting demand from night-time to daytime in response to PV generation seasonality.
• Real-time demand shifting: shift HW loads in near real-time based on predetermined business events including wholesale market price signals, within operational and network constraints regarding randomisation.

Outcome

The objectives for the Project should be achieved through the following outcomes:

• Demonstrate at scale the technical capability of dynamically controlled HW load as a load shaping tool for retailers.
• Determine the additional value of dynamic near real time control of HW over static schedule-based control.
• Define the limits of HW load management without impacting customer amenity and network stability.
• Increase the knowledge relevant to renewable energy technologies by sharing project insights through the knowledge sharing deliverables.