IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2021 - 51

Next Steps
A fisherman ultimately sealed the fate of the network support
program on Bruny Island. After the project's completion, a
boat anchor snared the northern undersea cable, resulting in
an irreparable failure and consequently threatening the network
security of the island. TasNetworks ultimately chose to
replace the severed cable, significantly increasing the available
network capacity.
While this removed the need for batteries to provide
network support, the consumers that own them continue
to enjoy the benefits of self-consuming their own solar and
shifting consumption between tariff periods. This series of
events provides a good example of deferred network expenditure
through network services. Network investment will be
made as a result of an asset failure or load growth increasing
to a point where a network support arrangement is no longer
the least-cost option.
While the NAC algorithm was applied to the use case of
increasing the effectiveness of network support from residential
battery storage, the underlying design of NAC allows
more foundational distribution-level market problems to be
solved. That is, by creating nodal prices within the network
that reflect the wholesale market, ancillary market, and
network support service prices, the DER dispatch process
is co-optimized for all of the different market outcomes in
the Australian NEM. Thus, NAC is suited as a key enabling
technology within a distribution market platform.
This approach has encountered commercial and regulatory
challenges on several fronts. While Australia is at or
near the forefront of integrating high-penetration DERs into
the power system, the case for using a distribution-level market
for solving the co-optimization problem has not been
made. Hence, the necessary regulations for the adoption of
a distribution-level market are not in place, restricting the
application of NAC to trial implementations and limiting the
commercial applications in the short to medium terms.
The application of NAC to increase the effectiveness of
network support services relies on a healthy market of opportunities
to provide these services. Unlike other jurisdictions,
Australia does not have large volumes of third-partyprovided
network support or demand response. DNSPs are
obliged to consider nonnetwork alternatives when assessing
new network expenditure; however, the vast majority of
assessments result in network-side solutions. Again, this has
the effect of reducing the current addressable market for the
commercialization of technologies like NAC.
The learnings and experience gained from the project
and lack of near-term industry focus on distribution-level
markets have already led to improvements to the NAC concepts.
In a follow-up ongoing project, tighter integration
with wholesale markets has been a key priority, enabling
prosumers to provide energy and frequency support services
alongside network support. This includes direct extensions
to the NAC as well as alternatives to reduce the requirement
for iterative bidding with prosumers, further reducing the
july/august 2021
implementation, communication, and computation complexity.
Still, ultimately, the future for a move to business as
usual for NAC and similar technologies depends heavily on
the regulatory frameworks allowing distribution-level markets
as well as the appetite for DNSPs to choose network
support services.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Fraser and Laura Jones were TasNetwork employees
at the time of the project.
For Further Readings
CONSORT Project. http://brunybatterytrial.org/ (accessed May
2021).
P. Scott, D. Gordon, E. Franklin, L. Jones, and S.
Thiébaux, " Network-aware coordination of residential distributed
energy resources, " IEEE Trans. Smart Grid, vol. 10,
no. 6, pp. 6528-6537, 2019. doi: 10.1109/TSG.2019.2907128.
A. C. Chapman, S. Mhanna, and G. Verbicˇ, " Cooperative
game theory for non-linear pricing of load-side distribution
network support, " in Proc. 3rd IJCAI Algorithmic Game
Theory Workshop, 2017, pp. 1-16.
H. Ransan-Cooper, H. Lovell, P. Watson, A. Harwood,
and V. Hann, " Frustration, confusion, and excitement: Mixed
emotional responses to new household solar-battery systems
in Australia, " Energy Res. Soc. Sci., vol. 70, p. 101,656, Dec.
2020. doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2020.101656.
" Open energy networks project: energy networks Australia
position paper, " Energy Networks Australia, Melbourne,
Australia, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.energynetworks
.com.au/resources/reports/2020-reports-and-publications/
open-energy-networks-project-energy-networks-australia
-position-paper/
R. Davies. " All of South Australia's power comes from
solar panels in world first for major jurisdiction. " ABC News,
Oct. 24, 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-25/all
-sa-power-from-solar-for-first-time/12810366 (accessed May
2021).
Biographies
Archie Chapman is with the University of Queensland,
Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Andrew Fraser is with the Australian National University,
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Laura Jones is with the Australian National University,
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Heather Lovell is with the University of Tasmania, Hobart,
TAS 7001, Australia.
Paul Scott is with the Australian National University,
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Sylvie Thiébaux is with the Australian National University,
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia.
Gregor Verbicˇ is with the University of Sydney, Sydney,
NSW 2006, Australia.
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http://www.brunybatterytrial.org/ https://www.energynetworks.com.au/resources/reports/2020-reports-and-publications/open-energy-networks-project-energy-networks-australia-position-paper/ https://www.energynetworks.com.au/resources/reports/2020-reports-and-publications/open-energy-networks-project-energy-networks-australia-position-paper/ https://www.energynetworks.com.au/resources/reports/2020-reports-and-publications/open-energy-networks-project-energy-networks-australia-position-paper/ https://www.energynetworks.com.au/resources/reports/2020-reports-and-publications/open-energy-networks-project-energy-networks-australia-position-paper/ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-25/all-sa-power-from-solar-for-first-time/12810366 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-25/all-sa-power-from-solar-for-first-time/12810366

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