The crucial gateway to a clean energy future might not be what you think
By Greg Hannan
The energy transition has its headlines and its heroes.
The industry celebrates mega wind farms, solar farms and now big batteries. And news of community batteries, neighbourhood batteries, rooftop solar, household batteries, virtual power plants, smart meters and microgrids also garner energy headlines.
What is often overlooked when it comes to the energy transition is something that almost every home and business is already connected to - distribution networks.
Our infrastructure is connecting and transporting clean energy to and from homes and businesses, making a real difference to people’s lives and contributing to the reduction of emissions.
Let’s think about how things have changed. Originally, the role of the distribution network generally, was to deliver power. Those days are a distant memory. The growth of rooftop solar and customers selling their excess solar energy back into the grid has meant the local network is operating very differently to what it did only a decade ago.
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Originally, the role of the distribution network generally, was to deliver power. Those days are a distant memory.
Our place in the energy supply chain makes our networks necessary for fulfilling the needs of customers to consume, export or store power. This includes residential, commercial and industrial customers as well as the new trader services such as aggregators who are developing new products and services.
In fact, our infrastructure is a crucial gateway to a clean energy future and by providing seamless access to our networks. We are generating new value for all customers and making a big difference to how Victoria meets its emissions reduction targets.
Our role has been redefined to a distribution service operator – or DSO. Our poles and wires remain, but the technology and flexibility behind how they operate is highly complex and increasingly sophisticated.
Our teams are developing and trialling solutions for accommodating a greater two-way flow of energy, introducing new tariffs that motivate customers to shift when they consume and export their power and address associated issues like minimum demand to support the broader energy system.
We’re also leading trials and projects to demonstrate the customer benefits of stand-alone power systems, microgrids, community energy, electric vehicle charging, and pole-mounted or community-based batteries as well as new demand response and demand management programs to promote energy efficiency.?
At the end of the day, all this work is for the benefit of customers because they are driving the change. And regardless of what any customer choice is, it our infrastructure that is providing one of the vital connections to support this change.