The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is pleased to announce its key technology providers supporting AEMO in developing a simulated distributed energy resources (DER) market platform to pilot how customer DER assets can participate in a future energy market, unlocking greater economic and environmental benefits for customers and the wider community.
This market platform is part of Project Symphony, Western Australia’s largest DER orchestration pilot which is coordinating approximately 900 DERs such as rooftop solar, batteries and large appliances across 500 homes and businesses into a Virtual Power Plant.
AEMO Principal DER Product Owner, Bruce Redmond said: “AEMO is building a future where DER participate to provide services to the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) whilst maintaining security and reliability of the SWIS to support a highly distributed energy future”.
“Project Symphony is a key part of this exciting future, the pilot will facilitate a marketplace for the trade of energy and other services for DER customers via DER Aggregators. In the future AEMO’s marketplace platform will enable Aggregators to register DER facilities made up of various DER technologies to participate and provide both on-market and off-market services” he said.
Energy Web Foundation (EWF):
will deliver the data exchange component for the DER market platform, utilising international expertise in developing open-source, decentralised technology that allows multiple parties to efficiently exchange and validate data in a secure environment. EWF’s open-source operating system is designed specifically to meet the regulatory, operational, and market needs of energy grids worldwide, and will provide the opportunity for Project Symphony to test digital identities to support the facilitation of secure, efficient exchange and validation of DER data.
PXiSE Energy Solutions:
will provide software to AEMO that will act as the market intelligence hub driving the DER market platform. This integrated software solution will enable aggregators of distributed energy resources to register facilities, submit bids and offers and execute market solvers for dispatch and settlement.
Microsoft:
Cloud Hosting and consulting services to support Project Symphony.
Bruce Redmond added: “This Project will also measure and validate the ability of DER to address local, regional and system wide challenges in the SWIS. This includes looking at how aggregated DER can be efficiently used to participate in WA’s wholesale energy and ancillary (essential system) service markets. The results will inform the policy, market design and regulatory reform required for DER integration and develop an evidence base for future investments in DER integration”.
AEMO’s vendors are already well on the way to delivering the core platform and capabilities to successfully deliver the marketplace for Project Symphony, with coordinated delivery across a similar DER orchestration pilot in Victoria called Project EDGE (Energy Demand and Generation Exchange). The learnings from these two nation-leading innovative projects will help pave the way for a highly distributed energy future throughout Australia.
Project Symphony Project Partners
Project Symphony is a collaboration between Western Power as the Distributed System Operator (DSO), Synergy, as the aggregator and AEMO as the Power System and Market Operator. We are also working closely with Energy Policy WA and the Western Australian Government, as Project Symphony is a key deliverable of the State’s DER Roadmap and Energy Transformation Strategy.
In addition to WA State funding, Project Symphony has received support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of ARENA’s Advanced Renewables Program.
Further information on Project Symphony can be found on our page:Project Symphony