United Energy Distribution Demand Response
- $5.76m Funded by ARENA
- $6.61m Total project cost
Summary
United Energy uses voltage control devices installed at 47 zone substations across its distribution network to deliver demand response (DR) as a participant of the Demand Response initiative. The United Energy Distribution Demand Response project delivered over 150 MW of DR reserve during the three-year trial.
Key results
- Previously, the use of voltage control to provide demand response services has presented a level of risk as it could not be guaranteed that customer voltages would not fall below the stipulated regulated limits, which in turn risks household appliance damage.
- United Energy has addressed this risk by developing an advanced technique using smart meters to implement voltage reduction without deteriorating their regulatory voltage compliance.
- Voltage across the network can be reduced by 3% on average to deliver at least 30MW of demand response within 10 minutes when called upon, sustained over a 4-hour period between 10am and 10pm on business days.
This project consists of:
Project reports- ARENA media release 11/10/17
- Demand Response Project Performance Milestone 6
- Demand Response Project Performance Milestone 7
- United Energy Demand Response Project Performance Milestone 2
- United Energy Demand Response Project Performance Milestone 3
- United Energy Demand Response Project Performance Milestone 4
- United Energy Demand Response Project Performance Milestone 5
- United Energy Demand Response Project Performance Milestone Report 1
- United Energy Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 4
- United Energy Demand Response – Final Project Performance
Learn more
Video: Demand Response United Energy
United Energy will use voltage control devices installed at substations across its entire distribution network to deliver demand response as a participant of the Demand Response initiative.
Report: Demand Response Final Project Performance
This report summarises the previous milestone reports and also the test results of the 8th AEMO demand response test conducted in May 2020.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 7
This report provides United Energy’s performance across Victoria for the ARENA Demand Response Trial summer 2018/19 testing period.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 6
This report provides United Energy’s performance across Victoria for the ARENA Demand Response Trial winter 2019 testing period.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 5
This report provides United Energy’s performance across Victoria for the ARENA Demand Response Trial summer 2018 testing period.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 4
This report provides United Energy’s performance across Victoria for the ARENA Demand Response Trial summer 2018 testing period.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 3
This report provides United Energy’s performance across Victoria for the ARENA Demand Response Trial non-summer 2018 testing period.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 2
This report documents the major achievements of the project since the release of the last United Energy milestone report.
Report: Demand Response Project Performance Report Milestone 1
This report provides United Energy’s performance across Victoria for the ARENA Demand Response Trial summer 2017/18 testing period.
Media Release: AEMO and ARENA Demand Response Trial to Provide 200 Megawatts of Emergency Reserves for Extreme Peaks
ARENA and AEMO today 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 United Energy Distribution Demand Response project used the existing fleet of smart meters deployed across the distribution network in Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula to provide time-lagged customer voltage data from all connected smart meters to enable reductions in voltage while maintaining voltage compliance during the demand response event.
Area of innovation
While a relatively simple idea, the project innovated how the industry can leverage the available voltage range from smart-meter measurements to keep supply to customers within the allowable voltage limits as a way to stabilise the grid in peak demands – without having to ask consumers to reduce their energy usage.
Benefit
The program helped establish the idea that DR can assist in maintaining a stable electricity grid in Eastern Australia.
Read more
ARENAWIRE Blogs
United trial fine tunes Victoria’s grid stability
As temperatures soared across Australia’s south-east in late January this year, Victorian distributor United Energy activated a novel approach to demand response.
EDITORIAL: The Distributed Energy Revolution
If millions of Australian households and businesses continue to invest in their own solar and battery systems, this vast array of small scale energy assets known as Distributed Energy Resources (DER) could create enormous disruption to the electricity system.
ACCC calls for “reset” of electricity market, backs demand response
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released its final report on electricity prices on Wednesday, calling for reforms to overhaul what it dubbed a “broken” electricity market.
The demand response army of customers that's 1.7 million strong...
When you join forces with a big operator and work together on a really big idea, the results you tend to get are, well…
United in demand response: the power of 660,000 Victorian consumers
Of all the ten demand response projects that make up the program being introduced this summer, the one put forward by United Energy involves involves by far the most customers.
