Project EDGE News
Project EDGE releases Final Report and Independent Cost Benefit Analysis
An innovative project in regional Victoria to design and trial a two-way energy market has shown that coordinated business and residential energy devices through virtual power plants (VPP) can provide electricity and other services to local networks, market participants and wholesale energy markets, helping support the grid and unlock greater value for all consumers.
Project EDGE is a collaboration between AEMO, Ausnet Services and Mondo, with support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, to demonstrate how to facilitate efficient and scalable trade of electricity services from coordinated distributed energy resources (DER), including small scale rooftop solar, batteries and controllable energy devices, such as hot water systems. Other participants in the trial include Rheem, Discover Energy and AGL.
More than 320 residential and commercial/industrial customers took part in an 11-month trial providing 3.5 megawatts of flexible capacity from over 400 DER devices that were coordinated in real-time by three different VPPs.
The three-year project involved extensive technical research, market trials and consumers consultation, with key findings shared with industry and policy makers to develop pathways for distributed energy resources to improve electricity reliability, security and affordability for consumers.
The project successfully coordinated DER operations between all participants, demonstrating end-to-end technical feasibility of DER to accelerate the transition to net-zero while maintaining energy security and reliability. It also demonstrated that VPPs can provides services to local networks, in addition to AEMO wholesale markets.
Independent CBA findings from Deloitte Access Economics, based on Project EDGE findings, show that greater coordination of active DER in the NEM will result in an incremental benefit of up to $5.15 - $6.04 billion over the next 20 years in reduced cost to all electricity consumers, and an additional societal benefit of $3 billion in emissions reductions.
Gold Award for Project EDGE
Congratulations to the Project team members and researchers involved in Project EDGE for receiving the Gold Award (Smart Grids) at the APEC 2022 Energy Smart Communities Initiative Best Practices Awards Program.
Project EDGE is a world-first research project that brings together the spectrum of relevant stakeholders across the electricity value chain: customers, DER owners, aggregators, distributors, the system/market operator and researchers. Several innovations will be demonstrated through trials that will test operating envelopes and the trading of local services.
Article Link: Gold Award for Project EDGE!
Three new Aggregators join Project EDGE
The development of a world first Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Marketplace through Australia’s Project EDGE commenced its field trial phase in May 2022.
Project partners, AEMO, AusNet Services and Mondo are pleased to announce we have engaged three additional aggregators to participate in the marketplace trial.
We welcome Discover Energy, Rheem and Combined Energy Technologies and AGL Energy to Project EDGE. As we progress through the operational phase of the trial, Discover Energy and Rheemand Combined Energy Technologies will actively operate in the EDGE DER marketplace field trials with their own systems and customers.
AGL has joined Project EDGE as a Research Participant. As a leading Virtual Power Plant (VPP) retailer, AGL will enhance the EDGE evidence base by providing real world insights from its own in-market VPP products and trials.
Together, these additional Aggregators will help Project EDGE generate a more rich and robust evidence base from which it will continue to inform the design and implementation of current electricity market reforms so they are in the best interests of all electricity consumers.
Further information and insights from Project EDGE can be found here.
For more information on our additional Aggregators see the below links:
Discover Energy
Rheem and Combined Energy Technologies
AGL
Project News
Customers in the Hume region are invited to get involved in the project. For more information on how to get involved, visit:
For more information on Project EDGE, please get in touch via EDGE@aemo.com.au.