Fluence lands automated trading deal with Australia’s biggest solar farm

US-based technology provider Fluence says its automated trading platform has been deployed at the 333MW Darlington Point solar farm in NSW, the country’s largest operating solar farm.

Darlington Point is owned by the UK-based Octopus Investments and Edify Energy and intends to use the AI- powered trading platform to optimise the trading of the Darlington project, which is its first large scale investment in Australia.

Fluence boasts that its trading platform – also used by wind farms and big battery storage installations – can optimise trading outcomes, helping wind and solar farms to dodge negative pricing events, for example, or allow big batteries to seize on such opportunities.

It says the automated software can boost trading income for wind and solar farms and big battery storage by more than 10 per cent.

Octopus says it will use the platform to manage its market trading and power purchase agreement obligations and will avoid generation at times of over-supply and negative prices.

Such platforms are becoming more popular to deal with the increasingly complex market dynamics, and the impending introduction of “five-minute” settlements, which will favour inverter-based technologies that can respond quickly to market developments.

“This change will require renewable energy assets to possess extremely accurate price forecasting capabilities to navigate an increasingly volatile market,” a Fluence statement said.

“The deployment of our AI-based trading platform at the largest solar farm in the NEM confirms that automated bidding tools are now firmly established as critical tools for operating renewable assets in the NEM,” said Seyed Madaeni, the chief digital officer at Fluence.

“We’re excited to be supporting Octopus Investments and look forward to helping them navigate price volatility and constraints in an increasingly complex market.”

The biggest customer of the $450 million Darlington Point facility is Delta Energy, a retailer that also operates the Vales Point coal plant in NSW.

Edify and oil giant Shell have also signed an agreement to build a 100MW two hour big battery near the Darlington Point solar farm. Shell will take most of the output of the battery.

Darlington Point began production in August last year, but after gradually ramping up production has produced little in the past month, according to the graph above from OpenNEM. There has been no explanation as to why.