The Australian Energy Market Commission today announced it has commenced a project, in collaboration with the CSIRO, which seeks to understand the future regulatory impact of the integration of storage technologies in the National Electricity Market.
Advances in technology and decreasing costs mean storage technologies have the potential to affect every part of the electricity supply chain.
The project is part of the Commission’s work to understand how technological change may impact the National Electricity Market and the possible regulatory implications of that change to ensure the market is flexible and resilient enough to respond.
Distributed storage systems may offer significant benefits to consumers with intermittent energy sources, such as the 1.4 million Australian households with rooftop solar PV, by allowing them to better match their generation to their usage needs.
Large-scale storage systems may be used by network businesses to reduce congestion, smooth network peaks, mitigate outages or provide network support in remote areas – all of which potentially reduce the need for spending on network infrastructure, thereby reducing the cost of network services for consumers.
Storage systems connected to power stations could allow generators to better manage variations in wholesale prices between times of high and low demand, or better integrate variable generation resources like large-scale wind.
Specifically, the project will explore:
- how different storage technologies may be utilised across the electricity supply chain;
- the implications for electricity consumption; and
- how the legislative and regulatory framework may need to respond.
The AEMC has engaged the CSIRO to research how different storage technologies may be used at various parts of the electricity supply chain and the implications for peak and total demand.
The AEMC will provide details of stakeholder engagement on this project in the coming months and will publish a report of its findings.
For information contact:
Senior Economist: Stuart Slack, 02 8296 7800
Media: Prudence Anderson, Communications Manager, 02 8296 7800