The request, which was made by South Australia distributor SA Power Networks, energy supplier Alinta Energy and metering provider Intellihub, calls for the implementation of a framework for a universal deployment of smart meters to all customers by 2030.

In addition, it calls for the implementation of a range of measures to better support customers though this accelerated rollout, including improving the information provided to them and applying new consumer protections when they receive a smart meter.

The proposed rule change was made in a letter dated 22 September 2023 following the AEMC’s completion of its review of the regulatory framework for metering services and mirrors the recommendations therein, the letter states.

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The only material difference is that the rule change request does not include the AEMC’s recommendations in relation to customer access to real-time data, as it was unlikely the changes could be implemented by 1 July 2025 – the commencement date for the acceleration of deployment.

“We have jointly proposed this rule change request because we support the recommendations in the AEMC’s final report and consider that they should be progressed as a matter of urgency,” state the signatories in the letter.

As the AEMC is unable to self-initiate a rule change request, the intent is to enable it to commence the process, they write.

Other proposed changes include improving the meter installation process by reducing barriers to installing smart meters and enabling more efficient and coordinated deployments and implementing a new regulatory framework for metering businesses to provide power quality data from smart meters to the distribution network service providers.

This would enable these providers to improve the visibility of their low voltage networks, better integrate consumer energy resources and improve safety for customers.

The requirements for undertaking tests and inspections of meters to avoid unnecessary costs also should be clarified and improved.

Smart meters status

The proposed rule change is set to have the most impact in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and South Australia where, at the time of the AEMC’s report, the average smart meter uptake was around 30%.

Tasmania has a programme in place to accelerate smart meter deployment by 2026, while Victoria has already achieved a near-universal uptake of smart meters.

While the number of smart meter deployments has been increasing each year it needs to increase substantially more from a little over 400,000 units in FY23 to over 700,000 units per year from FY26 to meet the 2030 universal rollout.

The proposed rule change based on a draft determination due on 4 April is open to comment until 30 May. The AEMC then expects to complete the process by 11 July.

The battery, which will have a 500MW/2000MWh capacity, will be funded as part of the State Government’s commitment to expand battery storage throughout Western Australia (WA).

Collie-based earthworks and rehabilitation specialists Cardinal Contractors has been awarded the contract to complete site preparation earthworks for the battery facility, with up to 500 jobs expected to be created at the peak of construction.

The battery is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

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Commented energy minister Reece Whitby in a release: “This is an exciting milestone for Western Australia’s decarbonisation journey.

“Synergy’s ground-breaking project is significant for the Collie community and will help local workers and families as Synergy seeks to exit coal-fired power by 2030.

“When complete, this battery will support reliability and more renewable energy on WA’s main electricity grid.”

Added Collie-Preston MLA Jodie Hanns: “The build of Australia’s biggest battery right here in Collie marks a significant point in the energy transition.

“Collie has been at the heart of WA’s energy system for decades and will continue to play an important role in the future.

“I’m delighted that a local business has been selected to be part of this project, creating local jobs as part of the ongoing support for our community by the Cook Labor government.”

Large-scale batteries provide long-term system stability to the power grid and support the uptake of more renewables, with Synergy planning to build 3GWh of storage by 2025.

The battery in Collie is the latest project coming from the company, with Kwinana Battery Stage One providing power to the South West Interconnected System since it was completed in May 2023.

Kwinana Battery Stage Two is under construction and is due to be completed in late 2024.

Originally published on Power Engineering International.

CER refers to smaller-scale energy resources owned by customers, which can produce, store, or vary how they use energy. Newer forms of CER include clean tech assets such as solar panels, batteries and EVs, as well as more traditional assets such as hot water heaters and pool pumps.

As part of a broad set of reforms, the AEMC announced a priority for customers to make better use of these CERs and contribute to grid stability.

In a release, AEMC chair Anna Collyer said investing in these resources empowers consumers to generate, consume, store and trade energy according to their preferences.

“By using these assets in a smart way, customers can lower their energy bills, and should they choose, share the power they generate or vary their consumption in such a way that it supports the overall grid,” said Collyer.

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A draft determination paper by the AEMC outlines positions on how to unlock the benefits of CER, with new arrangements made for:

• ‘Flexible’ trading by enabling all customers to have CER separately metered and therefore identified and managed separately from other ‘passive’ consumer loads such as lights and fridges.
• Large customers choose multiple energy service providers for their premises.
• An in-built measurement capability in technology such as streetlights and EV chargers to be used instead of additional meters, which allow for the measurement and management of energy use at lower cost.

The AEMC states the reforms as part of their work to create greater visibility of price-responsive resources, such as household batteries, making it easier for customers to participate in the power market, while helping AEMO and networks to operate the system more efficiently.

Added Collyer: “The key to a successful transition is integrating these resources effectively into the National Electricity Market. Our only choice is to be well prepared.

“If we do not properly integrate CER into market processes, we face materially higher generation, network and intervention costs. Consumers have a critical role in the transition – but to do so – they need sound policy decisions from us all.”

Further network reforms discussed in Canberra

Days following the announcement from the AEMC, The Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council (ECMC) met in Canberra, Australia, and committed to undertaking reforms on network planning through a National Consumer Energy Resources Roadmap.

The roadmap will deliver reforms on new consumer protections, network reforms to allow consumers to export more solar power to the grid, as well as nationally consistent standards in key areas, including vehicle to grid (V2G) technologies.

By doing so, states the Council in a communique, downward pressure will be placed on overall system costs and consumer bills, while contributing to emissions reductions and broadening access to CER.

According to the communique, reforms in each of these areas are already underway, such as those being coordinated by the AEMC, including streamlining connection processes, making Service and Installation Rules nationally consistent, and establishing standards and a regulatory framework for CER.

In response to the statements, Energy Consumers Australia CEO Brendan French commented in a release:

“Energy Consumers Australia welcomes today’s announcement that governments will develop a consumer-focused reform package to present at the next energy ministers meeting in July.

“There are just too many barriers that prevent people getting better energy deals, particularly people in financial stress or experiencing disadvantage. Pricing structures are too complex and it is difficult for consumers to understand the terms they see on their bills.

“Our research has found that 32% of homeowners and 44% of renters say they are unsure which tariff structure they are on. Many people simply cannot participate in a market as arcane as this one.

“We also support the government’s commitment to undertaking reforms through a National Consumer Energy Resources Roadmap. There are many instances now where people and communities are not only consumers, but suppliers of energy and they should be fairly rewarded for the generation, storage and services they provide to the system.”

Extreme storm activity, strong winds, lightning and resulting fire danger and falling trees caused damage to the electricity network in Victoria, Australia, while also causing access issues for repair crews to damaged powerlines and critical infrastructure.

In a 5.30pm (GMT+11) statement on Tuesday, February 13 from AEMO, the country’s power system operator, it was reported that Victoria’s electricity distribution businesses confirmed approximately 500,000 customers without electricity.

Australia’s Minister for the State Electricity Commission (SEC), Lily D’Ambrosia, on X called the situation “one of the largest outage events in the state’s history”.

However, strong restoration efforts were put in place, bringing the number down to little more than 120,000, as per a February 14 statement at 5pm from the operator.

According to AEMO, when the volatile weather hit, the Moorabool to Sydenham 500kv transmission lines tripped, multiple generators disconnected from the grid and consumers experienced a loss of electricity supply.

According to reportage by Weatherzone, the main commercial provider of meteorological services in Australia, the powerful winds caused six transmission towers to collapse near Anakie, to the north of Geelong, resulting in the peak of the power outages.

At the time of the incident, to keep the power system secure, AEMO directed AusNet Services to enact controlled load shedding, a mechanism used as a last resort to protect system security and prevent long-term damage to system infrastructure.

Load shedding is the planned reduction of electricity to selected areas during extreme events to protect the electricity network from long-term damage and widespread consumer outages, assisting with the balance of supply and demand to maintain power system security.

The last resort system is put into place either due to extreme weather or in the event of generation and infrastructure outages, both being the case in Victoria.

According to the latest update from the operator, vegetation clearing and repairs to damaged powerlines and poles continue. However, given the extent of the widespread damage, it may take days or more than a week in extreme circumstances to restore electricity to all of those impacted.

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A struggling power market

Although unprecedented, volatile weather conditions impacting the Australian network have been a frequent occurrence in recent years.

This is so much so that, according to Norway’s Rystad Energy in October 2023, the power market in Australia is the most volatile in the world.

Specifically, states the energy research company, issues of natural disasters such as cyclonic winds or bushfires have become more frequent and devastating in recent years; alongside unplanned coal generation outages, they have led to unexpected losses of supply for the country.

Due to these losses, states Rystad, Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), which interconnects power markets in Queensland, New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia has been experiencing the most fluctuations in daily prices of any system worldwide.

Follow-up forecasts from Weatherzone add that a severe storm will be spreading to New South Wales today. Although the state is not expected to see a repeat of the weather’s impact on power, “there is a decent chance of some dangerous storms.”

The company, which operates from Delaware, US, has said that, with pipeline growth to 6GWh in 2023, the company is doubling down on utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) as a priority focus for 2024 and beyond.

Specifically, having already entered the emerging Italian and Australian energy storage markets, as well as moving its first project into operation at Richborough, UK – the company is looking at Australia and Italy as continued hotspots for pipeline expansion, while recharging its origination portfolio in the maturing UK market and taking its first steps into the nascent Polish market.

Pacific Green is targeting a minimum of 1GWh capacity in each market it enters.

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Pacific Green’s targets for 2024 include:

• UK – operation / development / origination

December 2023 saw the company commission and connect to the power grid the 99.8MWh Richborough Energy Park, achieving financial close at neighbouring 373.5MWh Sheaf Energy Park – one of the first and largest non-recourse debt financed BESS sites in the world, transferring ownership of both projects to energy transition fund Sosteneo.

2024 priorities include progressing the construction of Sheaf Energy Park ahead of its July 2025 commissioning date and further expanding the UK origination portfolio.

• Australia – development / origination

Last year, the company secured land exclusivity agreements for two major BESS projects in Southern Australia – the first a 1GW/2GWh project in Portland; the second a 0.5GW/1GWh project in Limestone Coast.

Development is underway for these projects, which will add significantly to regional BESS capacity in Southern Australia and are slated for commercial operation in 2026.

The company now aims to more than double its greenfield origination pipeline to more than 6GWh.

• Italy – development / origination

Having acquired a majority shareholding in five battery energy parks in Italy from originator Sphera Energy in 2023, totalling 2.8GWh capacity, Pacific Green’s team in Italy is targeting financial close on its first 1,500MWh of storage capacity this year, ahead of the start of commercial operations in 2026.

The team also aims to further expand its origination portfolio to almost 5GWh in total.

• Poland – origination

Pacific Green intends to enter the nascent Polish market in 2024, targeting an initial origination pipeline of approximately 400MWh storage capacity.

Scott Poulter, chief executive of Pacific Green Technologies, said in a release:

“Our work in 2023 demonstrated the speed and efficiency with which our team can bring forward vital new BESS assets and deliver significant value to our shareholders – and we intend to continue building the pace in 2024 and beyond.

“The role of battery storage in advancing the energy transition is no longer debatable – but to achieve the momentous growth that’s needed in operational capacity, the market needs to double down on its efforts to originate workable projects and commercialise and deploy the technology efficiently. We’re laser focused on building the pipeline, the team and the international relationships needed to make a real difference in this sector.”

This is in line with the state government target of 100% rollout to homes and businesses by the end of 2026 and well in advance of the national target of 2030.

Moreover, one in three homes – approximately 80,000 customers – are using state utility Aurora Energy’s aurora+ digital channel, which enables them to track their usage and energy spend and seek efficiencies on smartphones and PCs.

“We’re excited that more than 80,000 Tasmanians are now taking advantage of aurora+ but we want more to benefit from it. The cheapest kilowatt of energy is the one you don’t use,” said Aurora Energy CEO Nigel Clark.

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“Being able to see how and when you’re using energy is powerful as it provides the proof to help change habits around the home to bring down energy usage.”

Aurora+ customers also can access other benefits, such as ‘Power Hours’, which delivers value directly back to them in the form of free electricity.

In the first event of what is planned to become an ongoing feature, 36,000 customers participated and were able to use unlimited electricity, free of charge in an available time slot of their choice.

Minister Duigan said the uptake of aurora+ and the rollout of smart meters has been very pleasing.

“Our government is delivering on its commitment for Tasmanians to have the lowest power prices, and with products like aurora+, they can save even more on their energy bills.”

Aurora Energy is delivering the rollout with the local metering provider TasMetering, part of the Intellihub group.

TasMetering was set up to provide both metering and data services through a long-term agreement with Aurora Energy.

A new ‘Lighthouse Project’ entitled ‘Electricity network planning and implementation under uncertainty for the clean energy transition: The roles of smart distribution grids in energy systems’ is aimed to initiate closer collaboration between the Networks’ six working groups to address smart distribution grids.

In particular the project should unite the working groups around the goal of planning smart distribution grids to support the clean energy transition.

With distribution crucial for changes such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, a holistic approach is needed to configure smart grids and leverage flexibility at the distribution level, an ISGAN statement comments.

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“The Lighthouse Project will identify specific activities and stakeholders to address these challenges. By pooling the expertise within ISGAN, we can make meaningful contributions to global smart grid development.”

Scoping for the project has begun and it is anticipated that bringing together the working groups and stakeholders will spark new ideas.

The six working groups are on Communications, Benefit and Cost Analyses, Smart Grid International Research Facility Network, Power T&D Systems, Smart Grid Transitions, and Flexibility Markets – Development and Implementation

Brazil joins ISGAN

In other news Brazil has become the latest member of ISGAN, with the country formalising its membership during the COP28 meeting in Dubai.

Brazil was represented by Luiz Carlos Ciocchi, CEO, and Christiano Vieira da Silva, Operations Director, of the country’s National Electric System Operator (ONS).

With Brazil’s membership – the first from Latin America – ISGAN’s reach is expanded across all the continents and the country has promised to broaden the Network’s perspective on integrating high shares of renewables and facilitating regional energy trade.

“We have now acquired a very valuable Brazilian partner that can assist ISGAN in comprehending and addressing grid challenges alongside innovation-specific needs, with a focus on South American countries,” said Luciano Martini, Chair of ISGAN.

New vice-chair of ISGAN

The other recent news is that Dr John K Ward, Research Director of the Energy Systems Research Programme at Australia’s CSIRO, has been elected as a vice chair of the ISGAN Executive Committee

In that role he joins the three other vice chairs, Russell Conklin from the US Department of Energy, Arun Kumar Mishra, Director of India’s National Smart Grid Mission, and Wickie Lassen Agdal, advisor and project coordinator at the Danish Energy Agency.

Ward’s work has focussed on facilitating increased uptake of renewable energy and improving the utilisation of infrastructure to allow this transition.

One example of this has been through incorporating the CSIRO Renewable Energy Integration Facility (REIF) as a member of the IEA’s Smart Grid International Research Facility Network (SIRFN), which is reported as having helped international laboratories adopt a more consistent unified framework for evaluating the relative merits of various inverter standards and helping lift global best practice.

Ward aims to help ISGAN improve international collaboration – avoiding duplication and accelerating progress through knowledge sharing, including with countries that have not traditionally been part of such collaborations.

On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA has announced AU$9.75 million ($6.55 million) in funding for the Australian and New Zealand-based utility services company to launch their Demand Flexibility Platform, targeting 510MW of aggregated load under control.

Intellihub’s AU$22 million ($14.8 million) load control project will initially target integration with residential hot water systems and solar PV, before expanding to incorporate other customer energy resources (CER) such as batteries, electric vehicle chargers and pool pumps over two years.

Intellihub will leverage its network of 2 million smart meters across the National Electricity Market and retailer relationships to interface with a range of CER devices to enrol more than 140,000 devices in the medium term.

Electricity retailers will be able to sign up households to the Demand Flexibility Platform and use it to manage their customers’ CER as part of the VPP. Intellihub will provide the interface between electricity retailers and customer-owned devices.

Participating CER can then be turned on or off to better manage supply and demand across electricity networks and wholesale markets.

Intellihub estimates that this could help reduce household energy costs by over a hundred Australian dollars, approximately US$67.19, per year for each device enrolled on its platform.

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Aggregated load control and optimisation

The project will leverage two recent Intellihub acquisitions: the deX CER integration and aggregation software developed by GreenSync and remote pool monitoring, optimisation and control technology called ‘Pooled’.

The vast majority of CER is currently ‘inflexible’, meaning it’s not possible to harness the benefits of flexibility from the gigawatts of energy that they generate or consume.

To date, the industry has not been able to efficiently aggregate these resources at scale due to the cost and complexities of integrating multiple device types and device manufacturers.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said in a statement that Intellihub’s Project could change the way CER is monitored and controlled, providing a potential solution at scale that can deliver widespread customer benefits.

“The continued growth in CER including hot water systems, rooftop solar and battery storage present the industry with both challenges and opportunities. Without the ability to monitor and control energy flows, these devices can create challenges for the grid, however, when aggregated and controlled, these resources can provide much needed demand flexibility, unlocking benefits for retailers, networks and consumers.

“Intellihub’s Demand Flexibility Platform represents an opportunity to create a smarter energy grid, where consumers are at the forefront of the energy transition, through the utilisation of their owned energy resources, being able to better match supply and demand on the grid while also making cost savings.”

Intellihub CEO Wes Ballantine added: “We now have the smarts to manage the energy these devices consume, so they become a flexible energy resource.

“They will work like a large battery energy system, soaking up excess daytime solar energy and avoiding consumption during peak demand periods to reduce stress on the system. There is enormous benefit from being smarter about how we manage these resources, not just for the energy system but for consumers and local communities.”

Intellihub is the only independent smart metering provider across Australia and New Zealand, supplying smart meters to more than 30 energy retailers.

Earlier this year in June, the smart metering and energy data services business announced acquisition of New Zealand metering solutions provider, Influx Energy Data, from electricity distribution business The Lines Company (TLC).

The acquisition served to strengthen the company’s position in the metering market, raising the number of their managed smart devices to more than 2 million across New Zealand and Australia.

Analysis conducted by the AEMC revealed that current price settings in the wholesale electricity market are insufficient to guarantee a reliable system during the transition to renewable energy.

The impending retirement of coal-fired generation adds further pressure, with AEMO forecasting in its 2022 Integrated System Plan a 60% exit from the market by 2030.

This pressure will create reliability risks, with AEMO’s latest Electricity Statement of Opportunity update showing NSW (New South Wales) and Victoria will begin to experience reliability pressures between 2025 and 2028 without new investment.

To address these challenges, the AEMC has introduced rules to incrementally raise the Market Price Cap, Cumulative Price Threshold, and Administered Price Cap.

These changes aim to provide greater flexibility for investors to contribute new generation and storage during periods of high demand and emergency situations, ultimately enhancing system reliability.

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Under the final rule, the Market Price Cap, representing the price ceiling in the wholesale electricity market, will increase from the current AUD$16,600/MWh ($10,889/MWh) to AUD$22,800/MWh ($14,957/MWh) by July 1, 2027.

The Cumulative Price Threshold, signalling the end of a sustained seven-day period of extreme high prices in the wholesale electricity market, will extend from 7.5 to 8.5 hours at the Market Price Cap by the same date.

Additionally, the Administered Price Cap, capping prices once the Cumulative Price Threshold is reached, will be set at $600/MWh ($394/MWh) from July 1, 2025.

These price settings, states the AEMC in a release, would have no impact on wholesale electricity prices over 99% of the time but would deliver additional capacity to reduce the risk of power outage and ensure the electricity system remains reliable for households and businesses.

Commented AEMC chair Anna Collyer in a release: “These changes will encourage more generation and battery storage into the system when we need it most, reducing the risk of damaging outages for electricity consumers and keeping the system stable as we rapidly transition to higher levels of renewable energy and decarbonise our economy.

“Importantly, this final rule is designed to have no bearing on electricity prices under typical market conditions. Rather, it enables price fluctuations to encourage new market entrants, thus fostering competition to the benefit of all consumers.”

According to an update from the DSO, a total of 35,000 customers have lost power since 6am this morning (Friday, 8/12) due to the severe weather conditions.

Most of these customers have been affected by the direct impact of weather conditions on the network, While 13,000 of the total had power proactively disconnected by SA Power Networks to reduce the risk of a fire start.

“This trifecta of weather conditions is the worst combination possible in terms of the potential for causing (grid) outages,” says Paul Roberts, head of corporate affairs in a media release detailing the weather threats.

Catastrophic bushfire conditions are currently forecast by the CFS for eastern Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Mid North, Flinders and the Riverland and extreme conditions are forecast in the Mt Lofty Ranges and Murraylands.

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These will be mixed with and followed by forecast lightning strikes and very high winds up to 100kmh in some areas, accompanied by heavy rainfall, destructive winds and possible tornados.

According to Weaterzone, the fires could be some of the worst since Black Summer in 2019 to 2020, with a dangerous mix of high temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds combined.

“We will be juggling our response between setting the network up to minimise the risk of fire starts and managing outage risk from storm impacts.

“In catastrophic fire conditions, equipment is set to disconnect supply in response to a fault to minimise a potential fire start. During storms we set the network equipment to make several attempts to reconnect power as many faults clear themselves allowing supply to be reconnected safely,” says Roberts.

Roberts adds that, through this combination of weather risks, there will be potential for multiple outages across areas, “for example as a lightning strike will cause an outage when the network is in bushfire setting, whereas the potential for that outcome is reduced when the network is in storm settings.

“Those outages may also be extended in regional and remote areas if crews are stretched by managing safety in severe conditions and responding to the trifecta of weather conditions.”

SA Power Networks says it is mobilising a range of additional resources including contractors, asset inspectors and volunteer wire watchers to assist local crews in responding to the conditions and cancelling non-critical planned work to free up additional crews.

This post has been edited since publication with an update from SA Power Networks on outages from the severe weather conditions.

The pilot, which was launched in August with the installation of the first smart water meters in West Perth, is aimed to enable the company to understand what the future of smart meters will look like for both customers and the business.

The Water Corporation has been using smart meters for over 10 years, particularly in larger commercial properties to help with water efficiency practices and in regional areas where it can be difficult for meter readers to access properties safely.

Now the intent is to take advantage of technological advances to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of meter readings while providing customers with a better online service.

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In addition the smart water meters are expected to offer benefits such as leak identification – critical with water becoming increasingly scarce with Western Australia having seen an average 20% reduction in rainfall since the 1970s with a corresponding reduction in dam inflows.

The properties that have been selected for the pilot are intended to represent the broader Perth population. They include those with a mixed ground topography in the hills and on the coast, a mix of business and residential customers and properties with meters located in boxes or behind fences.

LoRaWAN IoT solution for 5,000 smart water meters

As part of the pilot, consultancy Enzen and its group company NNNCo have announced the deployment of a LoRaWAN IoT connectivity solution for more than 5,000 of the smart water meters.

Dileep Viswanath, CEO of Enzen Australia, comments that water scarcity is one of the most critical challenges facing communities in Western Australia.

“Our work will help create a best practice solution that will enable the utility and its consumers to manage this life essential in the most sustainable way.”

Rob Zagarella, CEO of narrowband network company NNNCo, adds that through its telecommunications carrier license and commercial agreement with Western Power, it can access the utility’s infrastructure across its Western Australia service territory.

“This means our LoRaWAN network can be built close to Water Corporation’s smart meters, without needing to access its assets, further reducing cost.”

The energy transition hub, located at the University’s Hawthorn campus in Melbourne, features advanced digital energy technology from Siemens and the technical, R&D and teaching expertise of Swinburne.

The AU$5.2 million ($3.3 million) hub, also known as a future energy grid laboratory, is accessible to students, teaching staff and industry.

With a digital twin of Australia’s energy market, the hub also enables commercial research teams to run simulations of new solutions, particularly the intermix and influx of various sources of energy into the grid.

The hub enables users to leverage digital twins of energy grids, map scenarios, research new findings, develop original and creative hypotheses and test results.

According to Siemens, the digital twin of Australia’s energy grid will help commercial research teams run simulations of new, innovative solutions and software.

Researchers, students and industry can also use the opportunity to work on solutions for greener, more efficient future energy systems using Siemens Xcelerator, the company’s open digital business platform and marketplace.

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Commented deputy vice-chancellor and research at Swinburne, professor Karen Hapgood: “Australia’s ambitious carbon reduction targets need a multipronged approach by industry, research and government.

“The new Siemens Swinburne energy transition hub will be working on new technologies to improve efficiency, supply, integration, storage, transport and use, as well as how we can improve existing technologies and frameworks. We need change fast, and the Siemens-Swinburne team will focus on taking ideas to market – where they can make the most impact as quickly as possible.”

The announcement comes shortly after Siemens and Swinburne announced collaboration on the AI for Net Zero project that will develop comprehensive guidelines for responsible AI adoption and foster ethical practices within the energy industry, whilst helping accelerate the adoption of renewable energy for achieving net zero targets.

The microgrid technologies include SICAM A8000 and SIPROTEC5 devices for control and protection. The planning stations feature Siemens PSS software, which is used by over 70% of utilities and independent system operators including AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) and grid operators.

Said Peter Halliday, CEO and chairman, Siemens Australia and New Zealand: “Collaboration between industry and academia is critical to driving better outcomes on key topics of national importance such as the energy transition.

“Australia’s contribution to global emissions is just over 1%. As industry and as a society, we should be focusing on reducing our emissions beyond the 1%, using digitalisation as the key lever to drive long-term sustainability. The Hub is a great example of how the best minds can collaborate to help shape the future.”

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The new centre, which is based at the University’s Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI) and launched formally on November 1, brings together partners from the UK and Australia as well as others in the US to undertake research towards the delivery of 100% renewable energy power grids across the world.

The centre is led by Benjamin Hobbs, professor of environmental management, and co-directed by Yury Dvorkin, associate professor at JHU, with other US participants including Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California Davis.

The UK team, which includes the universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh and Newcastle, is led by Mark O’Malley, professor of power systems at Imperial College.

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The Australian team, which includes the CSIRO and Monash University, is led by Pierluigi Mancarella, professor of electrical power systems at the University of Melbourne.

“Through the EPICS centre, we hope to develop innovative computing, economics, engineering and policy solutions for transitioning towards a 100% renewable energy power grid,” said Hobbs.

“This transition is critical both for decarbonising the global electric power sector, which is responsible for nearly half of global carbon emissions, and for supporting climate-critical decarbonisation of other economic sectors and energy end uses.”

Four research thrusts

The EPICS centre will undertake research in four areas.

Research thrust 1 is focused on harnessing the latest advances in computer technology to develop power grid models and data-sharing mechanisms to handle the unpredictable nature of renewable energy resources like wind and solar.

Thrust 2 is aimed to find ways to accommodate wind, solar and storage resources into the grid and leverage these inverter-based resources’ flexibility for ancillary services.

Thrust 3 is proposed to develop economic analysis principles and tools for decision-making on how to design and operate 100% renewable power grids.

Thrust 4 will then use insights from the earlier thrusts to develop strategies for achieving net zero power grids as well as cross-infrastructure solutions to facilitate natural gas, hydrogen and power integration to reduce carbon emissions from other economic sectors, including transportation and buildings.

The EPICS centre has been funded for five years by the US National Science Foundation through its Global Centres Competition Awards, which are aimed to establish global approaches to address clean energy and climate change challenges.

Other collaborators in the research are expected to include electricity system operators around the world such as CAISO in California, National Grid ESO in the UK, Eirgrid in Ireland and AEMO in Australia.

Other ROSEI partners include the Global Power System Transformation Consortium, Energy Systems Integration Group and Future Power Markets Forum.

Don’t miss out on the most important energy transition conversations.

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The 185MW/370MWh battery storage system, valued at AUD400 million ($253.9 million) will be built in the Murray River region, near the renewable energy rich area of Kerang, Victoria.

Developed and structured by Edify, the energy storage system will utilise Tesla Megapacks, equipped with grid forming inverters that operate in ‘virtual machine mode’.

This will allow the storage system, capable of powering 350,000 homes for two hours, to operate in a manner akin to a conventional generator and provide crucial system strength services to increase the renewable hosting capacity of the Murray River renewable energy zone.

According to the partners, the financing deal represents the first transaction in Australia for fund manager Sosteneo after its launch in September, which acquires 100% ownership of the system on behalf of its clients.

The project includes a 20-year System Support Agreement with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) for the provision of system strength and is further supported by a 15-year offtake agreement with Shell Energy for the full 185MW/370MWh.

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Said Sosteneo’s managing partner and CIO Asia Pacific Ivor Frischknecht in a release: “In an Australian first, the KESS battery project is providing inverter-based grid-forming services under a 20-year contract with AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator).

“With revenues secured through long-term agreements with Shell Energy and AEMO, the KESS project is well-aligned with our objective of delivering stable commercial returns to clients whilst making an active contribution to the decarbonisation of the energy system.”

The Victorian Government is also supporting the KESS project with funding of AUD119 million ($75.5 million) to AEMO as part of a programme to strengthen the grid so it can host the new renewable generation Victoria needs.

The project is part of a AUD480 million ($304.6 million) investment the Victorian Government is making through its Renewable Energy Zone Fund in 12 projects to address capacity constraints and strengthen and modernise the state’s grid.

The project will also contribute to Victoria’s drive to meet legislated energy storage targets of at least 2.6GW of storage capacity by 2030 and 6.3GW by 2035.

KESS is to be built on the traditional lands of the Barapa Barapa, Wamba Wamba and Yorta Yorta people, within the Gannawarra Shire.

Commented Edify Energy’s John Cole, the company’s founder and CEO: “We are delighted to be delivering a ground breaking project with partners and stakeholders we have worked with on other assets including, Tesla, Shell Energy, Consolidated Power Projects, CBA, BNP Paribas, DNB, Gannawarra Shire Council, the Victorian Government and AEMO.”

Commonwealth Bank’s Deborah Leerhsen, executive general manager of Global Institutional Banking Coverage, added that the contract with AEMO also represents a “new milestone for battery developers, demonstrating that storage system operators can secure an additional income stream for providing system strength to the grid.”

According to the energy research company, these issues – the result of natural disasters such as cyclonic winds or bushfires, which have become more frequent and devastating in recent years – as well as unplanned coal generation outages have led to unexpected losses of supply for the country.

Due to the losses, states Rystad, Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), which interconnects power markets in Queensland, New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia has been experiencing the most fluctuations in daily prices of any system worldwide.

The findings come courtesy Rystad Energy’s analysis of public price data from 39 electricity markets globally, concluding that Australia’s NEM holds the unwanted title of ‘most volatile’, with domestic price spreads for Queensland and South Australia seeing the widest spreads of all markets.

According to Rystad Energy, the key metric used to measure volatility is the average one-hour intraday spread for a year of data, i.e., the difference between the highest and lowest price during a given hour.

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Commenting in a release was David Dixon, senior analyst for Rystad Energy: “Volatility can be unsettling for retailers who lack proper hedging strategies and for consumers who bear the brunt of resulting cost fluctuations.

“To tackle this, Australia should prioritise the enhancement of transmission infrastructure and invest in storage solutions to mitigate the impact of volatility. This will help to create a more stable and affordable electricity market for all Australians.”

Rystad also notes the importance of solar and price fluctuations resulting from its intermittency.

Namely, while daytime generation for solar power is high, pushing prices down, elevated natural gas prices are causing soaring rates in the evenings and at night when solar generation falls and gas-fired generation is needed.

To handle these fluctuations, the company suggests that increased storage capacity is required.

A total of 46GW/640GWh of pumped hydro and utility-scale battery storage capacity will be needed to balance the market by 2050, they find, a significant increase from the country’s current 2.8GW.

Rystad added how, outside Australia, the other markets that exhibited high volatility in their research were Japan and the Philippines, plus select regions of the US, such as California and Texas.

The renewable energy developer and fund manager purchased the project from Firm Power, a battery energy storage systems (BESS) developer.

Once operational, the project will store and dispatch 1GWh of electricity, supporting peak demand on the power grid and providing power to approximately 70,000 homes for one day.

Octopus Australia is collaborating with Powerlink, Ipswich City Council, and Firm Power to complete the project, which is strategically located near Brisbane.

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Nick Rose, general manager at Firm Power, commented: ”As the largest battery proposed in Queensland, the Blackstone Project is well located to provide system strength and reliability to the electricity network in the high-load, high-growth corridor of South-East Queensland.

“The Firm Power team is excited to work with a conviction investor such as Octopus Australia, who understands the importance of founding a renewables platform on a firmed portfolio of dispatchable battery assets.”

Sonia Teitel, co-head of investment and development at Octopus Australia, added that “the acquisition of Project Blackstone is a landmark transaction for Octopus Australia which advances our portfolio strategy.

“Once developed, the project will enable innovative offtake products to be structured. Additionally, the acquisition underlines our commitment to the growing Queensland energy market. Octopus looks forward to working with our partners at Firm Power to complete development over the next two years.”

The development, states Octopus Australia, aligns with the Queensland Government’s goal to achieve 80% renewable energy by 2035 while mitigating intermittency.

By integrating wind, solar, and storage technologies in Queensland, Octopus Australia also intends to offer power purchase agreements that provide reliable energy blocks. This expanded storage capacity will facilitate the distribution of energy among the company’s fully-owned operational assets.

The project partners are aiming for a final investment decision in the latter half of 2025.

The sandbox trial waiver, which is time limited and the first to be granted by the Australian Energy regulator (AER) through its Energy Innovation Toolkit, will enable Endeavour Energy to undertake the upgrade – an activity not permitted under current arrangements to the network service providers.

The proposal is to upgrade around 5,600 smart meters in parts of greater western Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands and the Illawarra region of New South Wales.

The aim is to improve the delivery of load management services to reduce consumption at peak periods and lower electricity network costs for consumers, as well as to introduce new energy services to those participating.

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AER Chair Ms Clare Savage has declared the trial waiver as an important milestone in the AER’s regulatory sandboxing work.

“The rollout of smart meter upgrades presents significant benefits for both consumers and industry. This trial can help consumers reduce their electricity bills through access to new products and tariffs, better integrated technology and improved understanding of their energy use.”

Under the current arrangements, network service providers do not have a role in the upgrading of meters to smart meters, although in certain circumstances, they can initiate metering replacements after giving notice when the meter is faulty.

Endeavour Energy sought the waiver to run a trial investigating enabling the issue of a meter fault notice to initiate the meter swap in circumstances where there is no genuine metering fault.

Through the Energy Innovation Toolkit, the AER is able to grant waivers to support innovation, knowledge sharing and more broadly the energy transition.

As part of the conditions, Endeavour Energy has appointed Intellihub as its metering coordinator to undertake the meter replacements.

The trial will last for 30 months and learnings will be shared at its conclusion, while the lessons learnt are anticipated to help the AER better understand the impacts of distribution businesses rolling out smart meters, as well as informing future sandboxing trials..

Thundergrid aims to use its experience in the electricity sector to make it easier for New Zealand to switch to sustainable electric transport, and to this end have committed themselves to removing barriers to EV adoption.

The acquisition of Thundergrid is part of Landis+Gyr’s smart infrastructure growth strategy to accelerate the expansion of EV solutions into Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) markets that have high penetration of renewable energy resources.

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The acquisition also goes hand in hand with Landis+Gyr’s flexibility management strategy to address complex grid challenges driven by electrification efforts and integration of varied renewable energy resources.

David Maclean, senior vice president of Landis+Gyr Asia Pacific said, “This acquisition is a crucial step in the evolution of our EV solutions, that spans from smart charging to future mobility services in ANZ. Together with Thundergrid’s expertise in EV infrastructure, design and implementation, and Landis+Gyr’s 127 years of experience in transforming the energy sector, we are well positioned to provide customers with turnkey and scalable EV solutions to decarbonise the grid.”

Chief executive officer, and co-founder of Thundergrid, Jonathan Parker said, “Combining our locally developed Intellectual Property (IP) with the backing of a global energy management solutions leader, means we can progress towards mass EV adoption without overloading the wider electricity grid. This problem is not unique to New Zealand, but as an island nation with an abundance of renewable energy, we are well placed to lead the world in electrification which Landis+Gyr has recognised.”

Thundergrid’s commercial independence including current management and team structure will be retained to drive the company’s vision and strategy in New Zealand.

According to the market operator is a press release, developing a modernised grid to cope with increasing levels of renewable energy and technology, such as grid-scale battery storage, has been one of the driving forces behind the reforms.

The market reforms aim to facilitate future investment needed to maintain system security and reliability and overcome technical issues that result in dispatching more costly generation, which will allow more low-cost renewable energy into the grid.

The reforms were delivered by the AEMO in collaboration with government agencies, industry and market participants, as part of the Western Australian (WA) Government’s Energy Transformation Strategy (ETS).

The WEM facilitates the buying and selling of electricity for the South West Interconnected System (SWIS), WA’s main power system, which provides electricity to about 1.2 million residential and business customers via 7,500km of transmission and 93,350km of distribution power lines.

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AEMO executive general manager for Western Australia and strategy Kate Ryan said the existing market was no longer fit-for-purpose to facilitate the state’s energy transition to net zero emissions.

Said Ryan in a statement: “Only a decade ago, more than 90% of all electricity used in WA’s main power system was generated by burning coal and gas. Today, the wind and the sun account for around a third of our annual electricity supply, peaking at about 84%, at times.

“These reforms modernise the power system in Western Australia and lay the foundations for it to run on growing levels of renewables, while delivering secure, reliable and affordable energy to consumers.”

The reformed WEM will also provide a more competitive market matching real-time demand for electricity with the lowest cost sources of generation, while maintaining power system security and reliability.

“Delivering this complex reform is a terrific example of the collaboration across AEMO, government, industry and market bodies that will be needed to navigate the energy transition,” added Ryan.

Deployed by Sunverge, a provider of distributed energy resource (DER) control and aggregation, as well as utilities company Engie, the system was developed in partnership with Nissan Australia and Wallbox, utilising the university’s electric vehicle (EV) fleet to provide grid services.

The project makes use of aggregated and managed bi-directional EV charging in support of the university’s efforts towards fleet electrification, microgrid operations and participation in the wholesale energy market.

“We’re proud of the work we’ve done with ENGIE and Flinders University on this groundbreaking V2G project,” commented Martin Milani, CEO of Sunverge, on the new VPP system. “Bi-directional EV charging is very new, and very few companies have mature products in the market today that can optimise against the multiple dynamic constraints on both sides of the meter.

“As the EV market rapidly matures, V2G services will give fleet operators new ways to save on charging costs, monetise their electric vehicle fleets, and provide grid operators with flexible and mobile assets to support a more flexible, reliable and sustainable electric grid.”

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The Sunverge platform is managing the operations of the EV fleet, incorporating each vehicle’s driving constraints and ensuring that adequate operational charge is available for daily driving, while optimising multiple V2G value streams including wholesale market price arbitrage, peak demand management, and optimisation of behind-the-meter generation and demand.

The platform continuously optimises against changing market prices while adhering to multiple dynamic constraints, including EV availability, desired state of charge levels, as well as distribution and local grid network constraints.

“There has been a great deal of buzz around vehicle-to-grid VPPs, but very few operational projects that provide meaningful multi-service capabilities with a variety of grid services beyond just time-of-day managed charging and simple demand response,” added Milani.

“This project demonstrates the immense potential of utilising the growing fleet of electric vehicles to provide system flexibility and critical T&D grid services.”

This contract, part of the Non-Co-optimised Essential System Services programme for the years 2024-2026, sees the company enlisting commercial and industrial customers to participate via its virtual power plant (VPP) programme.

The VPP aggregates the energy savings of these participants, providing additional capacity to the grid when required.

Curtailing electricity usage briefly serves as an alternative to activating backup generators; customers commit to reducing consumption when called upon during peak hours, a measure that may only be invoked on rare occasions to maintain power supply during emergencies.

This practice is hoped to enhance grid reliability during high demand periods and generate revenue for participating businesses that can offer flexible demand capacity.

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Commented Bill Johnston, energy minister of Western Australia: “This is a good opportunity for businesses to support grid reliability as we undergo the transition to new, lower emission sources of supply and manage the phase out of state-owned coal-fired plants.

“Western Australia’s main electricity grid, the South West Interconnected System, needs new forms of power capacity to keep the energy system stable and to keep the lights on during critical times.”

Necessity of demand response

Prior to their contract with Enel X Australia, AEMO issued its 2023 Wholesale Electricity Market Electricity Statement of Opportunities in August 2023, which underscores the necessity of the new programme.

The statement outlines the urgency of developing new generation, storage, demand management and transmission projects to reinforce grid reliability.

According to the statement, approximately 1.3GW of coal-fired generation capacity is expected to retire in Western Australia by 2030-2031, representing roughly 27% of the current market capacity.

As demand rises over this period, this shift is anticipated to result in a capacity gap of 4GW by 2032-2033, equivalent to approximately 83% of the current capacity serving the south-western WA wholesale electricity market.

Said Carl Hutchinson, country manager of ANZ for Enel X: “The energy market needs new ways to provide extra capacity at peak times to balance renewables and businesses need new ways to reduce energy costs.

“The Enel X VPP achieves both those goals, by orchestrating large energy users to curtail their energy usage for short periods a few times each year, in return for revenue.

“This approach to balancing supply and demand is much easier and cheaper than building new transmission infrastructure and generation assets, for the few occasions it is needed.”

Also on the radar is a partnership between ABB and Export Development Canada to make debt financing of up to $2.9 billion available to ABB clean tech customers in Canada and abroad, as well as Series A financing of RMB400 million ($54.7 million) for Shanghai Electric Energy Storage Technology.

AI-based network modelling

Neara, an infrastructure modelling platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create 3D, network-wide models for engineering-grade simulations and analytics, has received a new bout of funding to develop its platform.

The platform enables utility operators to design networks, enhance wildfire and vegetation management programmes and bring renewable projects online faster using their existing infrastructure.

The Sydney, Australia-based company has received a AU$10 million ($6.4 million) capital raise extension and a novel case study to double existing line capacity for renewable energy.

This increases the total Series B funding for Neara to AU$24 million ($15.3 million).

Neara will use the new investment to accelerate expansion of its AI platform in US and European markets and develop its new System of Enablement functionality.

System of Enablement

According to the company, the new model removes many of the constraints that prevent renewable generation from connecting to the grid, particularly regarding network availability and accessibility.

Neara chief commercial officer Jack Curtis commented on the platform, which he states enables utilities to make system-wide decisions:

“Our System of Enablement delivers one unified model to resolve critical macro issues, from designing stronger grids to mitigating damage caused by catastrophic weather events, as well as bringing renewable energy online faster using existing network infrastructure.”

Using the investment for its growth, Neara will offer “enterprise-grade, 3D network modelling technology”, they state in a release, that uses AI and machine learning to aggregate broad spectrums of data sources into one digital simulation environment.

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The System of Enablement will also enable insights into how existing electricity network infrastructure can be optimised to remove renewable integration constraints associated with network availability and accessibility.

Utilities can use the model to simulate how their assets will respond in the real world under any condition, based on hundreds of network and environmental variables.

These models aim to help eliminate network monitoring blind spots in stress-testing grid resilience and improve severe weather response while reducing reliance on manual field surveys.

A growing investment agenda

Neara’s financing round featured participation by Prosus Ventures and was supported by Neara’s existing investors, Skip Capital and Square Peg Capital.

The investment marks a first for Prosus Ventures in the utilities domain, traditionally investing in tech growth opportunities in fields such as logistics, fintech, health, blockchain and more.

The round comes as severe weather and wildfires continue to cause significant stress on power grids across the globe, in some cases causing blackouts

This is resulting in greater investments into power grids and networks. For example, the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR research stimulation programme announced in August is giving research into weather-proof smart grids a $375,000 boost.

$2.9bn debt financing for ABB customer clean tech projects

Electrification and automation tech developer ABB has announced a partnership with Export Development Canada (EDC), whereby financial and insurance support will be doled out to ABB customers across the globe.

The $2.9 billion partnership between the Swedish-Swiss tech major and the financial Crown corporation will see projects from ABB customers have access to new debt financing.

The partnership seeks to encourage investments in sustainable technologies and initiatives in Canada and worldwide in the areas of electrification and automation.

EDC will offer ABB customers financial and insurance solutions, with a maximum limit of $2.9 billion, to support strategic projects in clean technologies, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and future resource sectors.

Particular emphasis will be placed on strategic investments in growth-oriented technologies and solutions, including green hydrogen production, sustainable transportation solutions and the transition from fossil-based activities to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the terms of the three-year partnership, commercial financing will be extended on a project-by-project basis.

This partnership aims to stimulate both global and local investments, although collaboration with innovative Canadian start-ups is also an essential component.

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$54.7 million for Shanghai energy storage business

Shanghai Electric Energy Storage Technology has secured RMB400 million ($54.7 million) in Series A financing to enhance its energy storage business.

Key areas of focus include research and development of new systems, improvement of the industrial supply chain structure and construction of 100 Mbps stacks for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) energy storage systems.

The company, a subsidiary of Chinese power generation and electrical equipment manufacturing company Shanghai Electric, develops kW- and MW-level flow battery energy storage products for use in grid-side energy storage, distributed smart microgrids, energy power generation and grid connection and other fields.

The company has to date successfully developed 5kW/25kW/32kW/65kW series stacks and delivered more than 50 vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) energy storage projects.

The financing will also support corporate governance enhancements, talent development and the strengthening of research and innovation capabilities for the company.

Looking ahead, Shanghai Electric Energy Storage has plans to launch a Series B financing campaign in 2024.

Upon completion of the Series A, the post-investment valuation of Shanghai Electric Energy Storage is forecast to surpass RMB2.2 billion ($300.9 million).

With the grid becoming more of an investment target, what other initiatives have you seen gaining capital attraction? Let me know.

And make sure to follow Smart Energy Finances for the latest in finance and investment news coming from the energy sector.

I will also be in Singapore from October 11 to 12 attending the Bentley Year in Infrastructure awards. Will I see you there?

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

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China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) has been contracted to supply 300 EnerC Plus, containerised liquid-cooling battery systems for Kwinana Battery Stage Two, and about 650 EnerC Plus for Collie.

Additionally, US-based Power Electronics will deliver 72 inverters for the Kwinana battery and 160 inverters for the Collie battery.

Kwinana Battery Stage Two will provide 200MW of power with 800MWh of energy storage. Construction started on Kwinana Battery Stage Two in June and is estimated for completion at the end of 2024.

The Collie battery will be the biggest in Western Australia (WA) providing 500MW with 2,000MWh of storage.

The battery will be used to connect renewable energy to the grid, storing wind and solar generated during the day and alleviating congestion stress at periods of peak demand on the power system.

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The battery contracts are part of the Cook Government’s AU$2.8 billion ($1.8 billion) budget commitment to delivering renewable energy projects.

According to a joint press release from the WA Government and Australian electricity generation and retail corporation Synergy, the financing constitutes one of the largest renewable energy contracts in the country’s history.

Commented Australian Energy Minister Bill Johnston: “Contemporary Amperex Technology is a global leader of new energy innovative technologies (…) Power Electronics is a leading manufacturer of inverters for photovoltaic plants and battery applications and a world leader in energy storage.

“I would like to congratulate Synergy for securing these important partnerships, setting WA apart as a leader in the global energy transition.”

Added Premier Roger Cook: “These contracts, worth more than [AU]$1 billion, represent a major and important investment by our Government into WA’s cleaner, reliable and affordable energy future.

“Battery energy storage systems will play a key role in our decarbonisation plans, storing excess renewable energy generated in the day and discharging during times of high demand.”

Accenture invests in space data for all

Utilities and others in the energy sector are increasingly turning to data secured in space to advance operations such as infrastructure development and vegetation management.

Accenture’s venture arm Accenture Ventures is supporting this with a lead investment in a $50 million Series B round in the Spanish space start up Open Cosmos, which builds and operates space missions that provide access to high quality satellite data and insights on a global scale.

The companies intend to help clients track and analyse data found in space in order to help solve business challenges found on Earth, particularly related to sustainability.

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“Accenture sees a future where every company is able to tap into the vast potential of data captured in space in order to push past the boundaries of the possible and find new sources of innovation,” commented Tom Lounibos, managing director of Accenture Ventures.

“Although access to this data has traditionally been limited and costly, Open Cosmos removes these barriers with satellites that launch quickly and simply, providing fast access to data on climate changes, energy, resources, navigation and more.”

One of Open Cosmos’s future satellites is MANTIS, which is funded through the UK Space Agency and in partnership with ESA and intended to produce high-resolution imagery to monitor energy infrastructure among other activities.

Long-term demo of building integrated Perovskite PV glass in Japan

The next frontier for distributed clean energy is building integrated PV and other technologies such as low emissivity windows that can support the energy use and efficiency of buildings.

The potential to use the window itself for PV opens up a large amount of potential generation area but conventional silicon-based solar cells give rise to transparency issues, making them most suitable for surfaces such as skylights or greenhouses.

Panasonic asserts they have solved this issue with Perovskite solar cells – and have now launched a 15-month demonstration of their Perovskite PV glass at the newly constructed model house ‘Future Co-Creation FINECOURT III’ in the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, about 50km south of Tokyo.

In Panasonic’s design, intended “to harmonise with the design of various architectural structures as ‘power-generating glass’”, the Perovskite PV layer is formed directly on the glass.

The company boasts a 17.9% conversion efficiency for the technology, close to that of conventional silicon modules, and the world’s highest level for a Perovskite module of more than 800cm2 in size.

The company also claims that with its inkjet coating method and laser processing technology, flexibility is possible in size, transparency and design to enable customisation to specific requirements.

The Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town has been developed on the site of a former Panasonic plant in Fujisawa City. Its aim is to enable co-creation among residents, companies, local governments, universities and other organisations of new services to solve social and other topical issues.

Sydney university students to build a tokamak fusion device

Students at the University of New South Wales in Sydney have been set with the task of designing and building a tokamak, which will then be housed on the campus.

The initiative, led by nuclear engineer Dr Patrick Burr with support from the University’s Digital Grid Future Institute and industry partners Tokamak Energy and HB-11 Energy, is focused on creating a fusion-capable machine, addressing the engineering challenges of sustaining the extreme temperature and pressure conditions required for fusion for extended periods.

There is no intention actually to attempt to fuse hydrogen once it is built.

“We want to excite the next generation of innovators and make them realise how they can make a big change in the world,” says Burr.

“The students involved in this project will have to develop solutions to big engineering challenges, work closely with industry partners, and push the boundaries of what is possible with fusion energy.

“They will have to master skills that are also highly sought after in other industries, like safety-critical infrastructure, transportation, outer space, and of course conventional nuclear technologies.”

The goal is to have a working device operating within two to three years.

This will potentially be followed by other devices that could achieve fusion using different methods, such as high-power lasers.

The funding will be made available through concessional loans and equity investments to Western Australia (WA) through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to new builds and major upgrades to transmission in the state’s major electricity grids.

Priority project in these grids, the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) and the North West Interconnected System (NWIS), were identified through WA’s demand assessment processes, with recent Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) modelling supporting the need for sustained investment in transmission infrastructure in the SWIS.

Upgrading the SWIS and NWIS networks

The SWIS is WA’s main electricity network and serves more than 1.1 million residential and business customers in Perth and across the South West. It starts north in Kalbarri, runs through Perth down to Albany in the south and extends to Kalgoorlie in the east.

The deal will finance priority projects across the SWIS to increase the supply of renewable energy and connect it into the grid by plugging in renewable generation hubs.

Initial modelling, states a release from the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, suggests that in 20 years’ time, the SWIS grid will need to have up to five times more electricity than is available today as new industrial users connect to the grid.

The Pilbara’s NWIS consists of largely standalone networks owned by private companies and public entities with only a very small proportion (less than 2%) of electricity generated from renewables, adds the Minister’s office.

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The agreement will support more renewable energy in the NWIS, while ensuring existing infrastructure upgrades are coordinated between industries and governments.

Stated the Prime Minister: “Today we are joining forces with the Cook Government on a AU$3 billion landmark deal to deliver affordable cleaner energy to West Australians.

“Rewiring the Nation will help future proof WA’s energy supply, while also creating new jobs in energy, mining and manufacturing.”

Added Premier of Western Australia Roger Cook: “In WA we are delivering on our sensible and achievable plan to decarbonise our existing industries and create new clean energy industries as we transition to net zero, unlocking new projects while supporting new and ongoing local jobs.

“This significant package means we can accelerate the development of key energy transmission projects to facilitate decarbonisation, while also building on my Government’s climate action plan and initiatives already underway towards more secure, cleaner, reliable and affordable energy supplies.

An investment of this scale is expected to support around 1,800 construction jobs and unlock future projects across WA, helping to empower regional communities.

In the AEMC’s proposal, cost savings for customers would be made through a coordinated rollout led by energy networks developing a legacy meter retirement plan, with retailers overseeing upgrades to smart meters.

The AEMC’s final recommendations would see new obligations placed on retailers to provide customer-friendly information prior to meter installations, adequate notice regarding any tariff changes and a mandate on customer access to real-time data free of charge.

The smart meter rollout recommendations also include the development of a communications strategy to inform and assist consumers with their choices and support vulnerable customers with premises requiring remediation before a smart meter can be installed.

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Commenting on the recommendations was AEMC chair Anna Collyer: “Smart meters present clear benefits for consumers and form a crucial link for the wider energy system, paving the way for significant advances necessary to reach net zero.

“Today’s final recommendations aim to address key customer pain points by providing better notice ahead of tariff changes to prevent “bill shock”, as well as guidance for customers about how they can use tariffs to save on their power bill.

“Knowledge really is power and that’s why we’re also recommending a mandate on customer access to real-time data about their own energy usage, so that they can maximise their savings from the touch of a device in their own homes,” added Collyer.

The AEMC released its recommendations following a review of smart meters, finding that an accelerated rollout would help customers reduce their household bills in the short term and provide savings for all energy users in the longer term.

The independent review has determined that speeding up the rollout of smart meters to 100% of households by 2030 would provide net benefits to the value of AU$507 million ($327.8 million) for national electricity market regions, including New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia.

The final recommendations take in feedback from extensive consultation with stakeholders and the AEMC will now work with energy advocacy bodies on next steps in the rule change process.

A draft report of 20 recommendations was released by the AEMC in November last year, which included changes to energy rules to support a more coordinated programme of meter replacements in addition to ensuring appropriate safeguards for privacy.

The Powerledger Chain is the third generation blockchain from the company, which was one of the pioneers of the technology in the energy sector, and is designed to facilitate the development of scalable decentralised apps that are able to handle thousands of transactions per second at low cost.

Example challenges highlighted include intermittency from solar and wind and grid congestion.

“Today is the most significant day in our blockchain journey as we make our game-changer Powerledger Chain public as it offers scalability, security, and energy efficiency,” said Powerledger technical director and co-founder, John Bulich.

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“It’s the ideal platform for developing green and affordable energy solutions that pave the way to a brighter future.”

The Powerledger Chain is a customised permissioned Solana blockchain utilising proof-of-history and proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms to deliver the required throughput with lower energy requirements compared with proof-of-work blockchains.

Powerledger has developed a range of solutions in the areas of energy trading and traceability, flexibility trading and environmental commodities training.

These are at various stages of implementation in a dozen countries including Australia, India, the US and within Europe and Asia.

Another issue Powerledger highlights is that of centralisation, with the growing distributed energy system challenging the traditional centralised approach.

With decentralisation at its core, the public blockchain’s role in energy does not necessarily dismiss centralisation, but offers the importance of a balanced approach with the power of highly scalable blockchain-based solutions, the company states.

“The responsibility for grid management can be negotiated among stakeholders using a decentralised paradigm that uses smart contracts on our new public blockchain.”

Details on affected companies have not been released, although the company is conducting an analysis into potentially affected systems.

Energy One offers solutions and services, managing the “entire wholesale energy portfolio” for customers in energy trading and logistics, serving energy retailers, generators, users, customers and traders, ranging from startups to multinational organisations.

According to the company’s statement, immediate steps were taken to limit the impact of the incident. The company engaged cybersecurity specialists, CyberX, and alerted the Australian Cyber Security Centre and UK authorities.

As part of the company’s efforts to mitigate the effects of the attack, certain links were disabled between its corporate and customer-facing systems.

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The company is currently coordinating an ongoing inquiry and response into the incident to determine what information and systems were affected.

Another priority, states the company, is determining the initial point of entry.

Commenting on the incident was Camellia Chan, CEO and co-founder of Flexxon, an AI cybersecurity specialist company, who stated that “the Energy One cyber-attack demonstrates the increasing risk threat actors pose to critical national infrastructure (CNI).”

According to Chan, CNI marks prime targets for cybercriminals as their “systems are underpinned by a myriad of complex devices, meaning the consequences if these are infiltrated can be devastating and put real people at risk. For example, SSE supplies gas and electricity to seven million homes and is an Energy One customer.”

Cybersecurity gaps and QR codes

States Chan: “To meet the fast-evolving threat landscape, businesses need to be proactive in assessing security gaps and address those with innovative and proven tools. Using low-level AI at the hardware level in devices, for example, is a game-changer.

“Unlike traditional cybersecurity measures, this robust last line of defence protects against sophisticated attacks while removing the need for human intervention.

“Ultimately, for all organisations, but CNI in particular, cyber security must be an integral part of IT systems. One Energy shows us you can’t afford to have weak spots.”

The announcement of the attack on Energy One comes as cybersecurity has been growing as a concern for those in the energy sector.

In the same week as Energy One announcement, US-based computer security services company Cofense published an analysis of an observed large phishing campaign.

The campaign utilised QR codes targeting Microsoft credentials of users from various sectors; “the most notable target” states the company in a blog post, was “a major energy company in the US, saw about 29% of the over 1,000 emails containing malicious QR codes.”

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According to Cofense author Nathaniel Raymond, the energy company was the main focus of the campaign, which sent out phishing emails containing PNG images with phishing links or redirects through a QR code, with the majority of them being Bing redirect URLs.

Raymond states that QR codes can reach inboxes with hidden malicious links. These links can also be embedded into other images to disguise the QR code as an image attachment, or embedded image in a PDF file.

“While automation such as QR scanners and image recognition can be the first line of defense, it is not always guaranteed that the QR code will be picked up, especially if it’s embedded into a PNG or PDF file.

“Therefore, it is also imperative that employees are trained not to scan QR codes in emails they receive. This will help ensure that accounts and businesses security remain safe,” concludes Raymond.

The high voltage conductors contract is part of the Powering Tomorrow Together programme run by Transgrid, bundling procurement for major projects HumeLink, VNI West and EnergyConnect.

The programme will enable Transgrid to purchase materials, such as substation equipment, earlier and at a lower cost, enabling limited resources to be used across multiple projects.

The orders are also supported by AU$385 million ($249 million) Australian Government underwriting as part of the Rewiring the Nation program.

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Commenting on the announcement in a release was Transgrid CEO Brett Redman: “We continue to build our global supply chain to secure the specialised kit needed to build the future clean energy grid and ensure competitive and efficient delivery of the Federal Government’s energy plans.

“We are also finalising a separate contract with another Australian company to supply other locally-produced conductor elements.”

Dean Farrar, ZTT Australia’s general manager, said the conductors will be manufactured in equipment manufacturer ZTT Group’s Hekou manufacturing campus and will be delivered to Australia in 2024 and 2025.

“We are honoured to be partnering with Transgrid for their current and future major projects. This contract builds on our ongoing commitment to support the Australian energy and telecommunications markets, now and into the future,” stated Farrar.

This year Transgrid also secured 15 shunt reactors and 25 single-phase transformers worth approximately AU$150 million ($97 million), with arrival planned for late 2024.

According to Transgrid, more than 2,500km of new transmission lines are needed to ensure access to renewable generators and interconnection between regions required to drive down wholesale energy costs.

Over the next decade, Transgrid plans to invest AU$14 billion ($9.4 billion) to build new transmission infrastructure including the AU$7 billion ($4.7 billion), 1,600km Southern Superhighway made up of three major critical transmission projects – EnergyConnect, HumeLink and VNI West.

Transgrid’s Powering Tomorrow Together Program is bundling procurement for these three projects to secure needed equipment and materials.

The Digital Infrastructure Energy Flexibility (DIEF) pilot project will bring together a consortium of project sponsors responsible for funding, research outcomes, coordinating artificial intelligence competitions and onboarding buildings onto a digital platform in the hopes of developing flexible demand tech.

Flexible demand, states CSIRO, is an alternative to the traditionally rigid energy network infrastructure, offering a way to lighten the load on the grid during busy periods. However, the flexible demand approach is still nascent and requires new technologies, market processes and ways of engaging with energy users.

The DIEF pilot will address these issues, whereby up to 200 buildings, selected by the consortium will be connected to CSIRO’s Data Clearing House Platform (DCH), which will act as the digital infrastructure for the project.

DCH is a software platform for owners and operators of existing or new commercial, industrial, government and mixed-use developments to connect with service providers to solve common data-related problems.

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CSIRO’s energy director, Dr Dietmar Tourbier, said the DIEF project would help improve the viability and uptake in flexible demand, delivering benefits to consumers and industry alike:

“Flexible demand is critical because it ensures grid stability, reduces costs, supports increasing renewable energy integration and enables a more sustainable and efficient energy system.”

The project will allow property owners within the pilot to share data and build innovative software applications for sophisticated management of building carbon emissions.

Property owners will be able to identify opportunities for energy flexibility and productivity improvements resulting in reduced operating costs and energy use.

The data collected during the trial will be used to inform Government on the creation of a flexible demand policy and asset register.

Commented CSIRO chief research consultant for energy, Dr Stephen White: “This technology will not only allow people to get data out of their buildings and make it accessible to their service providers, but they will also be able to receive data from external providers such as the electricity market and the Bureau of Meteorology.”

Of the 200 buildings to be connected, the DCH expects to gain access to devices that consume over five megawatts of power from the grid, up to 0.08% of total demand in NSW. The power usage of these devices can be intelligently controlled to match up with periods of high renewable generation.

The DCH Platform forms part of CSIRO’s developing Smart Energy Mission which is focused on building Australia’s next generation of integrated and equitable energy systems.

Members of the NSW consortium who are sponsoring the project include CSIRO, the NSW Government, Amber Electric, DNA Energy, EVSE Australia, Nube iO, Property and Development NSW, RACE for 2030 CRC, UNSW, UOW, and Wattwatchers.

The project was funded with an AU$3.75 million ($2.43 million) grant from the NSW Government, under the Net Zero Plan Stage 1: 2020-2030. The remaining funding (cash and in-kind) was provided by consortium members and in-kind funding from CSIRO.