Energy Management Systems

A surge of community battery trials in Australia is seeking to make better use of the country’s vast distributed solar resource. But the results so far have battered expectations. pv magazine Australia’s Natalie Filatoff and Bella Peacock explore the motivations, challenges, and outlook for sharing and monetising solar rooftop riches.

Rooftop solar stronghold Western Australia has been offered a glimpse of its energy future with the market operator having activated its first virtual power plant to prevent household blackouts after heatwave conditions sparked concern for the state’s main energy grid.

A new code for retailers of ‘new energy tech’ products including rooftop solar, battery energy storage systems, electrical vehicle chargers and other emerging energy products and services has been introduced to raise consumer protection standards in Australia.

UK scientists have discovered that second-life batteries could provide a lower levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) than conventional batteries in school buildings equipped with PV in East African schools. They said the cheapest system configuration uses either 7.5 kW or 10 kW of solar with 20 kWh of storage.

Queensland zinc-bromine flow battery maker, Redflow, has announced its batteries have successfully been integrated with Chinese brand Deye’s hybrid inverters. Redflow says the integration “provides a range of new capabilities previously unavailable to the Australian market.”

Inverter and battery manufacturer SolarEdge has become the first vendor to meet, via native inbuilt software, the upcoming requirement in South Australia for “flexible exports” from residential solar systems. From July, the South Australian government will require new rooftop systems be fitted with software that allows SA Power Networks to dynamically control solar exports.

A German startup led by European heavyweights and backed by major institutional capital continues its aggressive acquisitions strategy in Australia, taking a majority stake in Solaray Energy – its second major APAC buy following Natural Solar. Company 1Komma5 is seeking to consolidate Australia’s residential solar sector to become the largest provider of home renewable technologies, devoting $100 million (USD 70m) to “strategically” acquire a number of businesses here within the year.

Schneider Electric’s new Schneider Home platform includes a smartphone app to monitor and allocate energy resources.

Major shopping centre landlord, Vicinity Centres, has teamed up with Enel X to potentially deploy up to 50 MWh of cumulative energy storage capacity. The partnership kicks off with two battery fit outs in Victoria and New South Wales, and follows a $73.2 million (USD 50 million) solar rollout across Vicinity’s shopping centres.

Boundary Power, a union between West Australian standalone power system (SAPS) leader Horizon Power and Ampcontrol, has installed its first off-grid system for an unnamed east coast utility in regional New South Wales.