Utility service provider Intellihub has received $9.75 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to launch its Demand Flexibility Platform, aiming to control 510 MW of aggregated through over 140,000 customer devices.
Intellihub’s $22 million project aims to integrate residential hot water systems and solar PV, with plans to expand to include other customer energy resources over two years.
Households will be able to join the Demand Flexibility Platform and use it to manage their customers’ CER as part of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). Intellihub will act as a bridge between energy retailers and customer-owned devices.
Intellihub’s platform enables the activation or deactivation of participating CER devices, potentially reducing household energy costs by over $100 per year for each device enrolled, thereby improving supply and demand management across electricity networks and wholesale markets.
The Project will make use of two recent Intellihub acquisitions: GreenSync’s deX CER integration and aggregation software and ‘Pooled’ remote pool monitoring, optimisation, and control technology.
Intellihub plans to use its 2 million smart meters in the National Electricity Market and retailer relationships to connect with various CER devices, aiming to enrol over 140,000 in the medium term.
The majority of CER is currently inflexible, unable to utilise the gigawatts of energy generated or consumed. The industry struggles to efficiently aggregate these resources due to the cost and complexities of integrating multiple device types and manufacturers.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller believes Intellihub’s Project could revolutionise CER monitoring and control, offering a potential, scaled solution that could provide significant customer benefits.
“The continued growth in CER including hot water systems, rooftop solar and battery storage present the industry with both challenges and opportunities. Without the ability to monitor and control energy flows, these resources can provide much needed demand flexibility, unlocking benefits for retailers, networks and consumers,” Miller said.
He stated that Intellihub’s Demand Flexibility Platform offers a smarter energy grid, allowing consumers to lead the transition by using their own energy resources to better match supply and demand, while also achieving cost savings.
“We now have the smarts to manage the energy these devices consume, so they become a flexible energy resource,” Intellihub CEO Wes Ballantine said.
Ballantine explained that they function like a large battery energy system, absorbing excess solar energy during the day and avoiding peak demand to minimize system stress.
“There is enormous benefit from being smarter about how we manage these resources, not just for the energy system but for consumers and local communities,” he added.
