March 2023 Update

Welcome to our March 2023 update! This month?we shared some big announcements including?SwitchDin building the Southern Hemisphere’s largest Distributed Energy Resource (DER) test lab supported by the NSW government.

The new test lab will emulate Australian and international microgrids and provide a complete test environment for solar inverters, batteries, EV charges and smart loads including air conditioners and heat pumps.?

We'll be making our new DER lab available to our customers. Talk to us if you would like to know more.

You can learn more in our announcement here.

More in this newsletter:

• Meet our New Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer
• Our Support of RACE for the 2030 $3.4M Project
• SwitchDin’s Submission to NZEA Issues Paper on Regulatory Settings for Distribution Networks
• SwitchDin’s Submission to Minnesota PUC in Regards to the Role of Third-Party Aggregation
• SwitchDin’s Sponsorship of Newcastle’s /NEW Conference
• Deriving Value From Existing Assets to Build a Better Virtual Power Plant?

SwitchDin Appoints Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer

We expanded our senior leadership team with two new technology leaders joining SwitchDin this month.?

Tim Schier , our new CTO will be leading the transition to new technologies to drive scale and deliver advanced capabilities to customers. He brings over two decades of experience working with software-as-a-service companies in the aerospace and defence industries.?

Also commencing this month is our new CISO, Sebastian Welsh who will be strengthening the existing cyber capabilities of the team. With 17 years of experience in project and technical leadership, Sebastian has held roles as the Head of Security at Canva and Staff Security Engineer at Google.?

Together, they will build and enhance the capabilities of Stormcloud and help our customers to accelerate their transition towards a clean future.

Find out more about Tim and Sebastian here.

SwitchDin Supports RACE for 2030 $3.4M Project

SwitchDin is thrilled to be supporting RACE for 2030 for the Australian Strategic Electric Vehicle Integration Project.?

As the uptake of EVs accelerates, fundamental challenges emerge and threaten to slow the successful integration of EVs into our society.?The $3.4M project will investigate ways of harnessing the full potential of integrated EVs with renewable energy generation and storage that have promise for scalability and applicability.?The outcome of this project will allow for more efficient use of electricity infrastructure and reduced redundancies.?

Learn more about the purpose and impact of the project here.

SwitchDin Submission to NZEA Issues Paper on Regulatory Settings for Distribution Networks

SwitchDin welcomes the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (NZEA) plan to apply the principles of transparency, standardisation and equal access to electricity data.?

Data is crucial for the development of a flexible service market. Flexibility traders compete with retailers, so it’s a big problem when a retailer exercises monopoly control to block data access.?

We agreed with the proposal and provided some recommendations which you can read in full here.

SwitchDin Submission to Minnesota PUC in Regard to the Role of Third-Party Aggregation

SwitchDin strongly supports the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission ’s proposal to allow aggregators of demand response to bid into organised markets.

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are a proven cost-effective solution to enhance system reliability. In addition to this, distributed energy resources (DER) and aggregated DER in the form of VPPs can make an important contribution to Minnesota’s sustainability and reliability goals.

Read more about the proposal as well as our recommendations here.

SwitchDin Sponsors /NEW Event

SwitchDin was thrilled to be a sponsor of Newcastle’s /NEW Conference.?

As a company founded in Newcastle, SwitchDin recognises the importance of showcasing and celebrating local innovation.

/NEW?brings together innovative thinkers and technology professionals who strive to build a brighter future.

Deriving Value from Existing Assets to Build a Better Virtual Power Plant

Virtual power plants (VPPs) can help to reduce energy bills for rural and regional Australia giving households and businesses more control over how they use their electricity.?

With government support for platforms and technologies to deliver more effective VPPs, households and businesses stand to benefit from accessing the untapped value of their renewable energy generation and flexible loads to make the most out of their locally generated solar energy.?

Learn more about how VPPs using these innovative technologies will improve the performance of Australia’s energy industry here.

Kind regards,

The SwitchDin Team