South Australian electricity distributor SA Power Networks has become the nation’s first energy network to join the Energy Efficiency Council—Australia’s peak body for the energy management sector.
The move is part of the organisation’s growing focus on leveraging the opportunity of ‘customer flexibility’, to deliver benefit to its customers, the network and the broader energy market.
SA Power Networks head of network strategy James Brown says, “SA Power Networks and its customers have a critical interest in how energy is managed in homes, transport and businesses.
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“Through leveraging customer flexibility, and soaking up South Australia’s excess solar, we could avoid billions of dollars of unnecessary investment in the electricity network, significantly improving network utilisation which reduces costs for all customers. This is in addition to the immediate positive bill impacts for participating customers in the shorter term.”
SA Power Network’s Smart Home Vision sets out a plan for customers to have access to simple retail offers that combine the benefits of network, market and in-home optimisation—enabled by smart Consumer Energy Resources and appliances, and energy management technology.
Under this vision, customers will have access to simple energy offers that reward them for their increased flexibility, can choose their level of sophistication and engagement, and have the freedom to switch between retailers and technologies, so that benefits of flexibility are maximised without impact to customer amenity.
“There is currently a lot of complexity and manual effort for customers to optimise energy use, and much of the Energy Efficiency Council’s advocacy is focused on removing this complexity and effort for customers, through the right policy settings,” Brown says.
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The move coincides with a range of consultation nationally relating to the future role of electricity distribution businesses in delivering efficient, non-network solutions to maximise the benefits of Australia’s shift to renewable electricity. This includes the recent release of Energy Networks Australia’s The Time is Now report, which estimates the avoidance of $7 billion per annum in energy system costs by 2030, through measures including better coordination of Consumer Energy Resources.
Brown says, “in response to the shift to renewables, electricity networks will play a key role in delivering capacity for greater electrification, through customer flexibility, rather than building out network infrastructure.”
Energy Efficiency Council CEO Luke Menzel says, “We all have a shared interest in enabling demand flexibility in businesses and households, and SA Power Networks have been an early leader in demonstrating how we can get it done.”
