Summary
Powershop Australia’s Curb Your Power program is one of 10 pilot projects awarded funding under the demand response initiative. The Curb Your Power program will run for three years and aims to deliver a total of 5 MW of emergency reserve through behavioural change and a smartphone monitoring app.
How the project works
The Powershop Australia’s Demand Response Program is delivering its reserve via behavioural response from residential and business customers in Victoria. When there is a peak demand event, Powershop notifies participants and asks them to voluntarily reduce their energy consumption for a set period of time. If participants reduce their usage and successfully hit their reduction target, they are rewarded with a power credit.
Curb Your Power is supported by Reposit Power through their enabling of access to Reposit enabled batteries, in addition to firm capacity being provided through Monash University’s cogeneration facility.
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Area of innovation
Powershop’s Curb Your Power program is innovative in its use of the company’s smartphone app, as they are able to engage with participants on their energy usage efficiently following events. Curb Your Power is also trialling financial incentives through the form of power credits as opposed to gift cards or other physical rewards. Powershop’s Curb Your Power program has around 20,000 customers and is the largest behavioural demand response program in Australia.
Benefit
The project will help to establish whether behavioural demand response can assist in maintaining a stable electricity grid in Victoria. It will also help us to understand how and to what extent communication technology can play a role in the residential demand response market.