Lessons learnt from the Solar Connect Virtual Power Plant Trial

Par­tic­i­pants could buy and sell ener­gy at dif­fer­ent tar­iff rates at dif­fer­ent times of day, with low­er prices to use ener­gy dur­ing the mid­dle of the day, when demand was low, and high­er rates to sell ener­gy when demand was high. The aim was to help elim­i­nate the ​‘duck curve’ effect, and sup­port demand on the grid when need­ed. Find out more about the tri­al here.

This Lessons Learnt Report focus­es on what the Solar Con­nect VPP and asso­ci­at­ed cus­tomer tri­als deliv­ered, in terms of: 

1. Engage­ment strate­gies with com­mu­ni­ty, solar installers and par­tic­i­pants – the incen­tives, process­es and expe­ri­ences that attract­ed DER own­ers to par­tic­i­pate in the VPP trial. 

2. Tar­iff design and con­sumer insights – the val­ue that time-based tar­iffs tar­get­ed at solar PV and bat­ter­ies own­ers deliv­ered to these con­sumers, and whether these tar­iffs could incen­tivise grid-sup­port­ive behaviours. 

3. Oper­a­tional vis­i­bil­i­ty and con­trol – how the VPP could pro­vide reli­able oper­a­tional vis­i­bil­i­ty and con­trol of DER in response to net­work demand. 

You can also read an addi­tion­al data snap­shot from the tri­al here.

The Alice Springs Future Grid Project thanks all project part­ners and stake­hold­ers who par­tic­i­pat­ed in this three-year ini­tia­tive, includ­ing cus­tomers enrolled in the Solar Con­nect VPP Trial.