The capabilities of virtual power plants (VPPs) to provide capacity as well as frequency regulation services to the grid in Australia will be demonstrated through a new integration trial.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), is running the 12 to 18-month trial, with funding of AU$2.46 million (US$1.75 million) through the national renewables agency ARENA, the government said at the end of last week.
The country already has a number of VPPS in operation or in the process of being set up. Dozens of distributed energy resources (DERs), typically including home solar-plus-storage and energy storage systems at commercial and industrial premises that use batteries and are configured for bi-directional power flows to the grid, are connected together and their aggregated capabilities can be called on by utilities and grid operators as required.
These so-called behind-the-meter (i.e. located on the customer side of the utility meter) resources can be managed as one resource, in many ways playing the role of conventional, centralised power plants in stabilising grids and maintaining security, supply and quality of power. AEMO is going to invite Australia’s pilot-scale VPP projects to participate in the latest demonstrator, with the likes of Sonnen, Tesla and Sunverge among the international providers participating in such schemes.
Operating the distributed energy resources (DERs) in such a way will enable AEMO to inform how it creates appropriate regulation and operational processes, while ARENA’s funding will enable the market operator to “accelerate upgrades to AEMO’s systems and processes to allow smooth integration of VPPs before they reach commercial scale”, an ARENA release said.
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