PXiSE Energy Solutions has been chosen to provide data processing of market transactions according to network operating limits and to provide logic elements to deliver the wholesale energy dispatch capability of the DER Marketplace, while considering the trade of local network services.
Read the full announcement from project partners, AEMO, Western Power, Synergy and the State Government. Project Symphony has also received support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of ARENA’s Advanced Renewables Program.
Project Symphony – Western Australia’s Largest DER Orchestration Pilot
Australia’s energy ecosystem is rapidly transforming into a decentralized and scalable two-way energy system, driven by the country’s worldwide leadership in uptake of household and commercial roof top solar PV generation. The increasing DER presence in the Australian market presents both technical challenges and opportunities that the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is addressing through its DER Program. A DER Marketplace is one solution AEMO and the Western Australian Government are exploring as it adapts its market systems operation capabilities to respond to Australia’s evolving energy transformation.
Project Symphony will orchestrate around 900 customer DER assets as Virtual Power Plants across 500 homes and businesses in Western Australia to participate in a future energy market, unlocking greater economic and environmental benefits for the community. This pilot provides the opportunity to test and enable coordinated DER integration for use in a future commercial environment, where customers can benefit from being active market participants in Australia’s Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM).
As experts in two-way grid control technology, PXiSE Energy Solutions is providing software to AEMO that will act as the market intelligence hub driving the DER Marketplace in Project Symphony. This integrated software solution will enable aggregators of distributed energy resources to participate in market and network services. PXiSE is also providing software solutions for a similar DER orchestration pilot for AEMO “Project EDGE” as announced previously on the east coast of Australia.
PXiSE software addresses requirements in the DER Marketplace for both wholesale market services and local network support services with a set of market business rules and participation by aggregators according to operational limits published by the Distribution Network Service Provider (DNSP). It will enable DER enrolment, demand forecast, and potential overall market optimization using DER resources to meet both wholesale and local electricity needs, through ancillary services, real-time balancing, bid-clearing verification, and reporting.
Along with the work in Project EDGE, this groundbreaking DER market platform aims to achieve several “firsts”:
- First to demonstrate multiple wholesale ancillary services supplied by DERs, specifically demonstrating frequency contingency services
- First market/system operator and distribution system operation collaboration to demonstrate DER delivering services using dynamic operating envelopes to ensure DER operate within a predetermined capacity. This will ensure reliability of the distribution network while maximizing available DER participation in the market.
- First in the industry to integrate and dispatch DER to simultaneously provide services for wholesale and local network requirements such as non-wire alternatives (resulting in capital deferral) and low-energy reinforcement needs (addressing outages and voltage problems).
- First to demonstrate dynamic operating envelopes and security-constrained energy dispatch using DER.
- First to demonstrate a cloud-based DER market platform solution designed to scale.
A Complete Solution
The market continues to shift from primarily large power plants to decentralized smaller-scale consumer-owned generation. To facilitate DER participation, market operators need increased visibility into DER availability across their networks.
PXiSE’s solutions take into account how DER can maximize value in the wholesale market while satisfying the local network support needs of distribution network service providers. Our technology selects the distributed resources to dispatch according to a set of business and market rules. This includes security constrained energy dispatch, and economically optimized capacity allocation at the distribution-network level, providing a reliable and cost-effective energy resources dispatch tool to meet dynamic system demands.
Combining this market-based approach with PXiSE’s proven ability to coordinate resources and operate the modern grid through fast and accurate advanced controls, we provide a complete solution for any market in the world–from a direct control solution at a single utility to a regional grid with an organized market model.
Media contact
Eugene Hunt
Trevi Communications for PXiSE Energy Solutions
Phone: +1 (978) 750-0333 x.101
Email: gene@trevicomm.com
