Credit: Matt Palmer
Fires in New South Wales and Western Australia have validated the growing vulnerabilities in Australia’s low voltage (LV) electricity network, where approximately 73% of overhead cable infrastructure hosts very high levels of Consumer Energy Resources (CER) such as rooftop solar panels that are powering the grid.
Across much of the low-voltage network, DNSPs are still operating with limited real-time visibility of what is actually occurring on the ground. However, this will change as AEMO’s 2025 Transition Plan for System Security confirms that CERs are becoming increasingly central to system operation.
In its transition plan, AEMO has taken steps to encourage the growth of CER to ensure households and businesses can continue to have a meaningful impact on Australia’s energy transition.
The plan has highlighted why CERs are important:
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The growth in flexible generation, storage and demand connected to the distribution system presents opportunities for the system to be planned and operated in a more two-sided manner, enabling consumers (potentially via aggregators) to gain value from providing system services and contributing to enhanced operational flexibility for managing system security.
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The risks associated with various forms of DER management scaling in an uncoordinated manner across different actors, with insufficient visibility, predictability, controllability and performance. This will potentially lead to substantial system integration costs, limited whole-of-system benefits, reduced system operability and material system security risks.
The lack of LV network visibility has forced DNSPs to rely on controls such as export curtailment to manage risks. This unintentionally limits the ability of rooftop solar, batteries and EVs to support the network at the times they are most needed.
Dr. Yogendra Vashishtha, Head of Future Networks at EA Technology said that Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and CERs could ensure reliability and resilience of the electricity supply with the backing of Dynamic Operating Envelopes (DOE).
For example, frequently updated DOE to high-risk corridors when there were fires could be set to modified export limits when line ratings are reduced by high ambient temperatures, supporting customers as much as possible. Having a DOE during fires will also help reduce faults to the energy supply by pre-emptively reducing demand and export during vulnerable periods.
DOE can also be used to proactively reduce demand and export during the highest-risk periods, lowering fault energy and asset stress, reducing the likelihood of outages and supporting more efficient network restoration following an event.
Dr. Vashishtha said, “The recent fires in Western Australia and New South Wales changes how energy flows through the network. By increasing our reliance on Consumer Energy Resources, we can deliver a lower level of interruption of supply to energy customers.”
“Through the introduction of a Dynamic Operating Envelope, DNSPs can support the restoration process of a network. For example, pre-charging community batteries and critical-site level storage and limiting cold-load pickup by constraining loads and EV chargers.”
To implement DOE, this will require DNSPs to invest in grid-edge visibility and the monitoring of load profiles.
About VisNet®
VisNet®, from EA Technology, is a pioneering business that focuses on low voltage (LV) and Medium Voltage management, delivering the energy network of the future.
As pioneers in the field of electrical network management, VisNet® delivers cutting-edge solutions that provide not only real-time monitoring and pre-fault detection but advanced and reliable grid modelling tools and automation of network connection requests. VisNet’s solutions improve resilience for new and existing networks and enhance the customer experience by giving visibility through powerful insights propelling the evolution of energy infrastructures around the world.
Originating in 1966 as a groundbreaking research and development organisation serving the electricity industry, EA Technology specialises in asset management solutions for electrical asset owners and operators.
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