'Grid orchestration' for the networks of tomorrow

Energy Networks Australia and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency have partnered to generate ideas that will help determine how we operate the electricity networks of the future.

Participants at ARENA’s recent A-Lab workshop explored the future design requirements of electricity distribution systems. They also looked at ways to encourage the alignment of industry projects to accelerate the network transformation. With the continued rise of solar photovoltaic (PV) and the growth in batteries, last week’s ideate session also looked at ‘grid orchestration’ for the networks of tomorrow.

A-Lab brings together industry participants from across the energy sector to troubleshoot and engineer ways to adapt the grid, reduce network costs and better integrate new technologies.

Energy Networks Australia Interim CEO Andrew Dillon said the transition to a system with far more distributed generation and storage provides many opportunities for energy customers but also represents challenges that we need to act on now.

“The CSIRO and Energy Networks Australia ‘Electricity Transformation Network Roadmap’ demonstrates how the successful integration of these new network services could see $16 billion in network infrastructure investment avoided by 2050,”  Dillon said.

“Networks could buy grid support from customers with annual payments worth $1.1 billion within 10 years.

“However, electricity distribution systems need to evolve in order to manage the technical challenges created by two-way energy flows.

ARENA’s A-Lab program is a central plank in the agency’s work accelerating Australia’s shift to a more reliable and sustainable renewable energy future. It is designed to address key challenges for the energy sector by getting the right people and companies to work together, understand perspectives and needs, and to collaborate on solutions. These solutions are incubated, tested, refined and pitched to collaborators and funders.