Overview
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. Plus ES, together with project participants, AGL and the UNSW CEEM 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. 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. CEEM research team is responsible for knowledge sharing activities of the project, analysing data from 20,000 systems, assessing financial and environmental benefits and the network impacts of large scale hot water control and orchestration.
https://arena.gov.au/projects/plus-es-south-australia-demand-flexibility-trial/
Funder
ARENA