60 | Battery storage a win-win Aurora Energy entered into a ground breaking ‘Flexibility Services’ agreement with renewable energy company SolarZero, to use household batteries to help manage the region’s peak load. Aurora Energy T T Richard Loader CONTRACTING For all your electrical contracting and servicing requirements: 0800 768 9300 | elec tronet .co.nz Central Otago West Coast Tasman Taranaki Proud to Partner with Aurora Energy In 2021 Aurora Energy entered into a ground breaking ‘Flexibility Services’ agreement with the renewable energy company SolarZero, to use household batteries to help manage the region’s peak load. Aurora Energy is New Zealand’s seventh largest electricity network by customer connections, supplying electricity to over 94,500 homes, farms, small businesses and large commercial operations throughout Dunedin, Central Otago, Wānaka and Queenstown Lakes. Wānaka and Queenstown/Upper Clutha are two of the fastest growing regions in the South Island. Ensuring the network keeps pace with demand and has sufficient capacity has traditionally been done through investment to increase the size of transformers and lines across the network, says Chief Executive Dr Richard Fletcher. “Increasingly we’re also sending pricing signals to incentivise people to shift their electricity use away from peak times, and we’re doing that from both a residential and industrial point of view. “As more people take up battery storage, and there’s increasing amounts of local generation, there’s capacity to inject surplus generation into the local network at peak times. It’s peak demand that drives the next level of investment. “The ability to use that local capacity helps defer the amount of investment to increase line capacity. In the long term, it’s better for customers in terms of cost and it’s better for the network because we don’t need to invest ahead of time, when it’s not economical to do so. That was a key driver for this project.” In 2020 Aurora Energy went to the market seeking tenders from providers with the capacity to inject electricity into the network when required at peak time. SolarZero was successful and was contracted to provide Aurora Energy with access to surplus electricity stored in some of its batteries at certain times of the year to help manage peak load. SolarZero is New Zealand’s leading renewable energy company, installing more residential solar and battery systems than any other company in the country. “The contract with SolarZero has been in place for three years now, and their customers now offset a megawatt of peak demand daily, using the power generated during the day to power their homes during peak periods “As more people take up battery storage, and there’s increasing amounts of local generation, there’s capacity to inject surplus generation into the local network at peak times.” at night. This is equivalent to about half our annual increase in demand. Aurora Energy monitors network capacity and demand as we go through the year, and at peak load time (e.g. during a July morning or evening) if we’re approaching network capacity we send a signal to SolarZero who instruct the batteries they’re managing on behalf of their customers to inject excess stored electricity into the network. That might be for just an hour, to manage that peak.” Operationally, when a signal is received from Aurora Energy, SolarZero ensures their customer has sufficient electricity for their own use, as that is the first call on the battery. Any additional or spare capacity is exported. SolarZero customers receive special ‘Time of Use Pricing’ and a ‘Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Rebate’ recognising the value provided to the network. “As a service provider to Aurora Energy, SolarZero receives a payment to be available to us, as well as an export payment. So it’s a positive for SolarZero, a positive for their customer, and the deferral of our investment is good for our lines customers.” Richard makes the point that while the Flexibility Services is an important part of a mix of options available to Aurora Energy, it does not replace the need for network investment, or differential pricing at peak times. “It is supplementary to those options, and we’re constantly trying to balance those three mechanisms as part of our investment plan. We’re not trying to manage overall network capacity with the Flexibility Services, but help support the peaks.” Richard acknowledges that this was one of the first initiatives of its kind and effectively paved the way in the thinking around Flexibility Services. One of the key challenges in the project was developing a mechanism for monitoring a more detailed level of localised demand movements and an additional communication protocol with SolarZero, which were shared with the wider industry. “There are now other initiatives across New Zealand, and I think there will be a lot more. “When there are more EVs and there’s electricity stored in people’s garages that’s not being fully utilised, this type of approach is likely to apply, with ‘flexibility service’ providers like SolarZero providing network support in the same way.”
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