Irish smart grid firm says it is largest aggregator of very fast FCAS in Australia

Irish smart grid technology company GridBeyond says it has confirmed its position as the leading provider of ‘very fast’ FCAS (Frequency Control Ancillary Services) in Australia’s National Electricity Market.

FCAS is designed to guarantee consistent and reliable supply of power by keeping network frequency, voltage, and power load within specific limits, and does this by delivering a fast injection or reduction of energy to manage variations in supply and demand.

FCAS include a wide variety of tools for grid operators to manipulate, including market-based mechanisms and technical options, all designed towards managing sudden imbalances in supply and demand – known as contingency events – and providing continuous adjustments so as to maintain frequency stability.

GridBeyond, headquartered in Ireland and founded in 2010, uses AI to extract the maximum potential out of connected assets, be they utility-scale renewable generation, battery storage, or industrial load, ensuring all assets contribute to enhancing the stability of the grid.

GridBeyond says it has now amassed a 145MW portfolio of the recently created ‘very fast’ FCAS in the NEM.

These ‘very fast’ frequency control ancillary services must be capable of responding to a rise or fall in frequency within around a second or less and do so by changing the output of their generator or load in an effort to prevent the shift in frequency.

GridBeyond acts as an aggregator of these very fast FCAS, utilising its AI-driven platform to coordinate multiple FCAS assets to respond to contingency events in the energy market.

GridBeyond recently launched a price forecasting service covering Queensland, NSW, South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania.

“These forecasts form the basis of our digital trading and optimisation platform enabling our customers to monetise flexibility through demand response, battery energy storage systems, co-located renewables or a combination of all three,” said Paul Conlon, head of trading at GridBeyond.