Australia’s AGL Energy to test hot water system support for the grid

AGL Energy is partnering with smart meter supplier Plus ES to test whether dynamic management of hot water systems through smart meters can support grid stability.

The Au$5.4 million (US$3.6 million) project, supported with funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), is set to take place in South Australia and involve up to 20,000 customers.

The project will utilise Plus ES’s existing smart meters with SA Power Network’s time-of-use tariff, which is designed to encourage more consumption of electricity during the middle of the day when there is surplus solar generation.

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Plus ES, a New South Wales public-private initiative, is developing a control and integration portal to allow AGL Energy to access and manage the hot water systems of participating customers.

Specifically, two core flexibility use cases will be investigated – planned demand shifting with the hot water loads shifted dynamically for a predefined set period, and real-time demand shifting in which the loads are shifted based on predetermined business events including wholesale market price signals.

AGL chief customer officer Jo Egan said the learnings from this project should help consumers, other retailers and the broader market understand more about the benefits of retailer-orchestrated distributed resources.

“This project has tremendous opportunities for our customers, for AGL and for Plus ES’s smart meters across the market. As AGL dynamically manages hot water systems in South Australia for thousands of customers, we will be taking advantage of high renewable energy generation available during the day to test if this can help with grid stability and support a reduction in energy prices.”

With hot water systems considered a predictable load for residential customers and with more than 15GW of hot water systems across the National Electricity Market, the companies anticipate using the learnings from the project to advocate for wider recognition of the benefit of retailer orchestrated distributed energy resources for customers, retailers and the network.