Domestic Demand Management: Lessons to be Learned?

Smart energy monitor displaying real-time electricity usage in kilowatts and cost per hour in pounds on a desk with a coffee cup, smartphone, and money.

As the artic blast moves down throughout northern Europe and negative overnight temperatures are expected throughout the UK, including London. The UK’s National Grid, our AEMO, has activated the Energy Blackout scheme.

This was introduced in 2022 during the height of the Russia / Ukraine conflict and the idea was to allow demand side response from domestic participants who have smart meters installed in their properties. Once you have signed up, and 1.6 million households were in the first wave of signups, you receive a notification that states a date and time for the event which will be under the scheme – currently this tends to be around the peak of 17:00 – 18:30 on evenings. Participation provides a buffer for the grid in terms of capacity.

This doesn’t mean those household have to return to the dark ages with candles, you can keep lighting on, but you are encouraged to reduce high demand intensive loads such as washing machines which use high quantities of energy.

In the northern winter 2022 / 2023 period the scheme was so successful it was estimated by the Centre for Net Zero and the National Grid that 3.3GWh of power and 681 tonnes of CO2 were avoided over the 22 activations. Your retailer assesses your average use and the use over the “blackout period” and you are rewarded with a reduction in your bills for the energy not consumed.

Payments totalled £11m, or $21mAUD with one SME business saving $1,726 or $3,298AUD in one event and the average household will save around £100, $191AUD in total.

So, can the Australian grid benefit from these types of events? The answer is an an-doubtable yes, however with reports stating that outside of Victoria uptake of smart meters is at the 30-35% level, which is significantly below the AEMCs target for 100% upgrade by 2030 and a compulsory roll out to begin in 2025 being pushed at the moment, the likely introduction of these schemes is significantly behind those of the UK.

However, with increasing UFE charges, increasing home regulation systems, solar and batteries, and smart appliances the change could come from within consumers rather than via regulation. This would present challenges for retailers though, the traditional view of peak, off-peak and shoulder would need to have a dynamic element to allow these homes and businesses to take advantage of their flexibility and Time Of Use tariffs will need significant refinement.

From a regulatory point of view, ensuring customer protections over those periods are kept, that the metering is fair and that they are fully aware of their responsibilities will no doubt cause some further concerns and delays, yet with numbers like 3.3GWh, $21mAUD and customer engagement on the table this can’t be an idea only for long.

Transmission Requires Community Engagement Realisation

Back view of two children and an adult walking towards wind turbines, the adult holding a colourful pinwheel up in the air

With the government ploughing ahead with the re-wiring the nation rhetoric and discussions about $10,000/km costs for land the attention of the AEMC and others have naturally been drawn to the requirement for community engagement.

Many panels and speakers at this years’ All Energy conference in Victoria honed in on the requirements for the local communities to be brought into the fold regarding Renewable Energy Zones, Transmission and the benefit this could bring to those communities.

The AEMC have taken this a step further and on Thursday released the final requirements which are required for any transmission projects to get through the regulatory investment test (RIT-T). They are expecting for this engagement to be across all affected parties from councils to local landowners and will ensure they not only have clear information about the proposals but they are aware of the rights they hold.

Taking directly from the AEMC announcement the main changes being made include:

  • Stakeholders are to receive information that is clear, accessible, accurate, relevant and timely and explains the rationale for the proposed project.
  • Engagement consultation materials, methods of communication and participatory processes must be tailored to the needs of different stakeholders.
  • The stakeholders’ role in the engagement process must be clearly explained to them, including how their input will be taken into account.
  • Stakeholders are provided with a range of opportunities to be regularly involved throughout the planning of ‘actionable’ or ‘future’ Integrated System Plan (ISP) projects and Renewable Energy Zones (REZs).

This is timely given the announcement from Chris Bowen who was speaking at the Future Energy conference in Adelaide this week who amongst his optimistic speech stated that “a properly constructed renewable grid is a reliable grid… is one that we can count on in difficult times,” and that access to transmission or delays in building new infrastructure would be the main contributor to Australia not meeting its targets.

These targets are now set to 82% of Australia’s energy coming from renewable sources by the end of the decade, and GHG emissions cut by 45% (in comparison to 2005 levels) by the same time.

However, with the focus of the government squaring in on transmission as the key messaging to Australia missing its targets and not the lack of cohesive renewable energy strategy for the past 10 years or the governments approvals of new gas fields, you do wonder if that is part of the reason our Minister for Climate Change and Energy is ducking the hard questions at this years COP28 in Dubai which starts at the end of the month.

The announcement that he is dispatching his Assistant Minister, Jenny McAllister has not gone unnoticed, especially by the pacific islands our Prime Minister is trying to woo this week. With those nations key to Australia being announced as the COP31 hosts, Turkey is stating they would also be interested, they intend to firmly hold Australia to its climate promises and pointing the finger will not wash with their nations at the forefront of recent climate disasters.