Trial that calmed network fears about impact of rooftop PV expanded to bring in big retailers

An award-winning dynamic network pricing trial that kicked off two years ago with around 200 participating households is expected to grow to 1,000 participants this year.

Project Edith – named for electrical engineering pioneer Edith Clarke – ran a trial in 2022 to demonstrate how residential solar can continue to thrive on the electricity grid without challenging distribution network capacity limits or requiring costly additional infrastructure.

The collaboration, originally between Ausgrid and Reposit Power, combined Reposit’s smart energy management technology with dynamic network pricing to create a two-sided market, where services are bought from flexible assets like home solar batteries.

The technology dynamically generates the cost to use the network at a particular point in time and location to unlock value both for and from customer energy resources.

The first phase of the trial was successful enough that Ausgrid put a call out in May of 2023 to aggregators and retailers of virtual power plants to be part of an expanded next phase. It also won Energy Network Australia’s 2023 Industry Innovation Award.

This week, the network company has announced the addition of three new customer agents to join Reposit – ShineHub, Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia – to offer a range of virtual power plant (VPP) products as Project Edith expands into its next phase.

“The four customer agents we now have in the program all have slightly different VPP offerings, which helps to explore how Project Edith can best support flexibility offerings out there in the marketplace, and iterate the solution as we learn together,” Ausgrid’s head of distribution system operator services, Alida Jansen van Vuuren, said in a statement.

“The expansion should bring Edith up to one thousand participating customers this year, which also helps provide the data we need to further tune the algorithms within the dynamic services engine.”

On the customer side, Project Edith is opt in, and the guarantee is that no customer will be financially worse off through participating in the trial. But van Vuuren says the key message from the trial is that more people using the network efficiently drives the cost down for everyone.

“Project Edith not only puts network value on the table to make these virtual power plant offerings even more attractive to customers, but it also removes the barriers to market participation that traditional fixed pricing can inadvertently cause.”

Origin Energy’s general manager of future energy, Brendan Manzie, said the gen-tailer is keen to join the trial.

“It is an important opportunity to evolve the way small energy assets like batteries can support the grid when most needed, which if successful will mean even greater value for our customers,” he said.

EnergyAustralia’s head of customer assets, Renae Gasmier, says the project could help accelerate the delivery of virtual power plants, “providing better outcomes for households, the community, and the energy system.”

“This initiative represents a significant step towards fairer pricing and a more stable energy network,” added Shinehub CEO Jin Woo Kim.

“We’re excited to see how our innovative software and technology can create unique tariffs for the Australian electricity market, empowering our customers with solar and battery solutions to actively participate in the energy market, driving both cost savings and sustainability.”