PLUS ES South Australia Demand Flexibility Trial

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The recipient, together with project participants, AGL and the University of New South Wales will undertake a trial in the SA Power Networks area, which will utilise up to 20,000 existing smart meters to dynamically orchestrate hot water (HW) load. Despite being the largest load for most households and the NEM’s most predictable load, controlled load (CL) hot water has not been utilised as a flexible load to address minimum demand challenges at this scale.The trial involves development of a technical enabler for retailers to dynamically control hot water load in near real time.This will 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 will address challenges posed by midday demand and generation imbalance and will drive smart meter adoption in the market. The Project includes 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 will 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. The objectives for the Project will 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.

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