More than 200 participants are expected to join the project that aims to develop new technology to support flexible demand for energy in commercial buildings. Here’s a view of what’s envisaged and some views from Craig Roussac.
Led by CSIRO, the $11 million Digital Infrastructure Energy Flexibility (DIEF) pilot’s ultimate aim is to empower consumers to have more control over their electricity usage, save money and ease pressure on the energy grid.
CSIRO chief research consultant for energy, Dr Stephen White said the pilot had its origins in an ihub project run by the AIRAH, the association for airconditioning, heating and ventilation profession, with support from the Australian Renewable Energy Association.
“Since 2020 we’ve been collecting buildings through that – connecting buildings and providing people with visibility of what’s going on inside their buildings,” White said.
“The new project, which is just getting started now, is planning to get another 200 buildings on and to identify five megawatts of flexible loads.”
Project’s industry partners are recruiting the building owners, however, now that word is out, several people are putting their hands up, he said.
“We’re looking for New South Wales buildings and we want them to be interested in discovering the flexibility potential inside their building. We’re not actually going to trade the flexibility commercially – just identify the kind of companies that are interested in paying for it.”
Participants also need to be interested in tracking their 24/7 carbon emissions. While some may currently work out an average emissions factor multiplied by annual energy consumption, one of the objectives of the pilot is to create the ability to synchronise energy demand with the availability of renewables, so hour by hour data is important.
However, this is easier said than done, with a wide range of scale, situations and capability in commercial buildings.
“One of the reasons why CSIRO got involved in this was due to things like interoperability barriers. You’ve got proprietary systems – can we improve on that? And also make data discoverable and usable and accessible: the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data principles,” he said.
CSIRO’s Data Clearing House Platform (DCH) provides the digital infrastructure for the project. DCH is a software platform for owners and operators of existing or new commercial, industrial, government, and mixed-use developments to connect with service providers to solve common data related problems.
White said the data collected will be de-identified and used to run projects such as machine learning competitions to develop energy saving software. As CSIRO operates in the not-for-profit space, White is also investigating ways of democratising access to the data, mindful of consumer data rights, to help people make informed choices.
“We’re in the space to help support the progressive understanding of what can and can’t be done in a really practical way with real buildings, rather than doing it through academic analysis.”
He said the technology will not only allow people to get data out of their buildings and make it accessible to their service providers, but they will also be able to receive data from external providers such as the electricity market and the Bureau of Meteorology.
“When people process all this data, they can discover cost trends and plan accordingly.”
Why the electricity industry needs to talk to the property industry
Ultimately though, White said that whether we can synchronise consumption with available renewables will depend on the journey that the electricity industry goes on, as much as the buildings industry.
“The buildings industry will have some ability to flex through batteries, electric vehicles, thermal storage and hot water, and will have some ability to shift its loads.
“But can it just completely stop consuming at night without vast investments in batteries? Or is it about the electricity industry decarbonising? So, we’re trying to achieve some kind of way in which the electricity industry can talk to the property industry in a way that matches with people’s expectations and with trust and things like that.”
White said this may involve investigating energy flow direct from the grid to the device.
“So, the distributor will control these assets perhaps through virtual power plant software management, and particularly in the non-residential building sector, where you’ve got informed buyers with big assets, we have seen the electricity industry talking to the property owner or the owner doing the management of their devices, and having a level of control over their own operations that perhaps might not be necessary in residential level.”
Craig Roussac, co-founder and chief executive officer of Buildings Alive, which helps owners and operators of large complex buildings cut emissions and costs, said the areas addressed in the DIEF pilot need a lot more attention from policymakers, network system operators and government.
“There is huge potential there and it will not just save us a lot of money, it can deliver a lot of environmental benefits in the short term and provide a much more reliable, stable system if you have a demand side that can vary with the supply side.”
He gave an example of the work he does with his clients around capacity charges.
“Capacity charges kick in at different points depending on what network they’re connected to. Take Sydney CBD for example: from 2 pm to 8 pm, you are paid a capacity charge, and if you know that your demand is going to be high, you can shift your load a little bit before 2 pm to reduce your capacity charges and help the grid.
“We provide forecasting for buildings we work with and found they can shift 30 per cent of their load actively, with some forewarning and engaged technology.
We just need buildings to shift a third of their electricity load
“If all buildings were to shift just a third their load for a few hours each day in peak time, it would be equivalent to half of all Australia’s coal fired power generation, or more than 100 per cent of the gas generation capacity in Australia.
“So hopefully, this pilot is just the beginning of a widespread, large-scale shift in focus towards demand,” he said, adding that the way our electricity market is structured at the moment, the demand side doesn’t have any say. He said price signals are volatile because there’s a disconnection between supply and demand.
“People are paying too much for electricity and they’re not rewarded if they provide flexibility services. So, beyond this project, there’s a variety of things that need to be considered in terms of how we reward and incentivise.”
The DIEF project was funded with a $3.75 million grant from the NSW government, under the Net Zero Plan Stage 1: 2020-2030. The remaining funding (cash and in-kind) was provided by consortium members and in-kind funding from CSIRO.
Members of the NSW consortium sponsoring the project include CSIRO, NSW government, Amber Electric, DNA Energy, EVSE Australia, Nube iO, Property and Development NSW, RACE for 2030 CRC, UNSW, UOW, and Wattwatchers.