Innovative new energy marketplace
Arena helps to bring to life innovative new energy marketplace. An innovative new software platform called the decentralised energy exchange (deX) will allow consumers who store their own renewable energy through home batteries to sell their excess electricity back to the grid where it is needed most. The deX aims to reduce electricity bills while assisting the network to manage grid reliability and reduce the need to upgrade infrastructure. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) funded project led by GreenSync has today announced that 37 industry partners will support the deX platform rollout. The deX is a digital marketplace that allows home and commercial building-based energy assets and appliances such as batteries, air conditioners and fridges to be bid into the market to be used for a range of grid services such as reducing network energy constraints.
ARENA previously announced $450,000 in funding to pilot the innovative and new digital marketplace that was formed during ARENA’s inaugural A-Lab innovation session. The deX platform helps the electricity network understand where electricity is coming from, how much is needed and sets the price. The pilot will take place across two network locations (United Energy in the Mornington Peninsula and ActewAGL in Canberra) and seeks to test the ability of deX to meet peak demand issues, and demonstrate how market-integrated batteries might address grid constraints.
GreenSync CEO Dr Phil Blythe said that the participation from industry showed that the deX approach had industry-wide support. “This is the first time that industry has come together in this way,” said Dr Blythe “This is an opportunity born from our current energy crisis, deX provides a framework to increase customer value, improve system reliability and manage the transition to a renewable energy supply.”
The deX pilot was formed as part of ARENA’s A-Lab inaugural session and is the first project to have be trialled in the Australian Energy Market. A-Lab is ARENA’s award winning grid integration innovation lab and draws on a network of people with a wide range of expertise to drive systemic change in the electricity sector. It has facilitated collaboration across the electricity sector and aimed to develop innovative experiments and projects to drive the integration of renewable energy into the power system.
ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said A-Lab has been a success in creating innovative ideas from industry. “A-Lab helped to bring together industry leaders in ways that have never happened before to better facilitate breakthrough thinking on complex challenges facing the electricity sector.” Mr Frischknecht said. “ARENA is proud that deX was born out of these collaborative meetings. deX is a fantastic solution to providing peer-to-grid network pricing and will allow renewable assets to be traded back into the grid and enable value transfer between participants in ways not previously possible.” Industry partners involved in the first A-Lab session to create the deX project are GreenSync (lead), Reposit Power, Mojo Power, United Energy, ActewAGL, Australian National University and the ACT Government.
Source:Arena
