More electricity utility experience managing distributed assets. In this case, having batteries distributed limited the upgrade of transmission. While it’ll be a risk to have everything interconnected, the value will be immense…just like stupid Facebook.

Source – Australian utility Evoenergy is carrying out one of the most comprehensive demand management trials ever in Australia, using a combination of batteries and traditional demand response. One of them, a virtual power plant used to avoid a substation upgrade, could save Evoenergy around AUD $2 million (USD $1.6 million). In its multi-demand response test, Evoenergy signed up 402 batteries and linked them into the VPP through control systems belonging to Reposit Power, Evergen and ActewAGL. During the test, 367 batteries responded to a signal from Evoenergy and dispatched energy into the grid. The batteries delivered 570 kilowatts of power, which added to 2.1 megawatts of curtailment from large customers that delivered 2.6 megawatts of demand response. Evoenergy said the trials had no negative impact on the safety or reliability of the grid.

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