Counties Energy and Transpower team up for coordinated DER future
Words like ‘network’ and ‘grid’ exist in the energy vocabulary for a reason: because the system is interconnected. And as the demands of modern-day living bring greater focus to the need for a reliable, resilient, and renewable energy sector, interconnection is more important than ever.
Traditionally, network operators like Counties Energy have been the middle point in the system, taking high voltage power at grid exit points from the national carrier, and then converting and distributing that electricity to people’s homes and businesses through specialised infrastructure.
However, customer uptake of new, digital innovations is transforming the old way of doing things. Now, power is quite literally in the hands of the customer, bringing with it a cleaner, more resilient, and exciting future.
An energy system with customers at the centre
This reimagined energy future will not only be interconnected, but multi-directional, with energy able to be generated, shared, and traded at multiple points within the network.
It’s a new reality that’s already coming to life, with customers connecting their own smart devices and electrical assets to the network, giving them the ability to interact with their energy usage in a way that has never been seen before.
In energy vocabulary, these assets and devices are called ‘Distributed Energy Resources’, or DERs, for short. EV chargers, solar panels, air conditioning units, and batteries are just some examples of DERs. They’re popular with customers because they assist with energy self-sufficiency and can lower power bills. They also contribute to the country’s transition to more renewable energy use, helping to meet our climate goals.
Bringing DERs into the family
It’s clear that DERs are here to stay and will only increase in number and capability. It’s an exciting, customer-driven change, with energy operators preparing for, and even facilitating the change.
Leading the way is Counties Energy, where we are well underway to modernising our network into a ‘Distribution System Operator’ (DSO), a multi-directional, customer-centric system that supports the integration of DERs.
The first of its kind in New Zealand, Counties Energy’s DSO model will support DERs to generate, store, trade, and export electricity using the existing network. No longer just pushing energy one way, Counties Energy will act like the conductor of an orchestra, coordinating multi-directional energy flows, with DERs at the heart.
The new DSO model will enable better sharing and use of smart meter insights, real-time network usage and generation data, with consumers able to view, manage, and control their personal energy use. Customers will become ‘prosumers’, able to both produce and consume energy.
For Counties Energy, it offers an elegant way to help manage load peaks and troughs on the electricity network, making it more resilient and driving a better customer experience overall.
Taking local know-how to the rest of the country
But DERs haven’t just caught the eye of lines companies – Transpower, New Zealand’s national electricity grid operator, has also recognised the growing impact of DERs, estimating that by 2035 there will be 3.9 million distributed energy resources throughout the country.[1]
For Transpower, sitting at the top of the chain as the high voltage carrier, visibility of these assets on the distribution networks is vital. With a remit to stabilise the national load by managing peaks and troughs through times like generation shortfalls, winter demands, or planned maintenance, knowing where and when these DERs are on the network can help Transpower manage its load on any given day.
But how can a humble battery or solar panel have such an outsized impact? The key lies in the possibility to aggregate the growing number of DERs in such a way that, combined, they offer a level of flexibility that can be harnessed to better manage the grid.
In a nutshell, by managing when and how these devices intersect with the network, they can be used to add to, or subtract from, the electricity load, resulting in a substantially more resilient system for everyone. It’s similar to how hot water systems are currently managed, which are occasionally turned off by network operators to manage loads, but at times and for durations that do not inconvenience customers.
Teaming up to find a way forward
However, all this can only be done if you know what you’ve got to play with – and this is why Transpower and Counties Energy are working collaboratively to identify DERs linked to our network, provide data on historic use and forecast their future demand. Once an approach has been established, it will then be shared with other network providers, so Transpower can begin the same process to identify DERs right across the country.
It’s a six-month project, and Counties Energy, with its DSO capabilities, will be able to provide useful insights to Transpower to help them gain visibility of the entire system, from the low voltage network to transmission grid level.
This ability to use DERs to smooth out electricity peaks will help avoid or reduce the need for costly infrastructure upgrades, helping to keep power bills down and decreasing the need to call on non-renewable, expensive fossil-fuel energy sources to supplement the grid during peak times.
In fact, it brings new meaning to the terms flexibility, coordination, and aggregation: sharing information to enable better use of advancing technology and a future-forward energy system where power bills are affordable, and our energy supply is renewable, resilient, and stable.
All features that will be critical for our country to succeed in an increasingly connected and digital future.
[1] https://www.transpower.co.nz/our-work/distributed-energy-resources