Australian businesses solving a $12bn energy market problem

Businesses are increasingly becoming prosumers of the energy market, choosing how they consume energy and participate in the energy market. And the rewards are significant, not only financially to businesses, but also through the wider community benefits from lower energy costs.

As Australia pushes towards a transition to renewables, businesses have a significant role to play balancing the energy market and in doing so, lower energy costs for everyone. It’s simple demand and supply. Businesses that don’t control demand when the grid is stressed will pay the price and so too will consumers as more infrastructure is built to satisfy ongoing demand and supply mismatches.

Shifting businesses to a prosumer model of energy market participation is beginning to solve for fundamental energy market problems of uncontrolled demand and intermittency of supply. Both problems are only exacerbated by the influx of renewables.

Market volatility is what PowerSync Technologies solves for and they’re getting businesses onboard to be rewarded for being part of the solution. With businesses representing around 65% of Australia’s energy consumption, PowerSync is confident that this is where the lowest cost, highest benefit impact can be achieved. All-the-while improving CSR profiles as businesses enable more renewables simply by being plugged into the ebbs and flows of the energy market.

Covering baseload demand in the grid has few alternatives, and burning coal all day just in case there is large cloud coverage at a solar plant or the wind stops blowing is not only cost prohibitive but unacceptable from an emissions standpoint. The optimal alternative is to have technology that has an on/off switch, is cost effective and has low emissions. Gas satisfies only one of those criteria – it can be switched on and off relatively quickly. The central technology that can satisfy all three criteria is battery storage and demand-side load flexibility. These two elements are central to PowerSync’s work with businesses.

PowerSync Technologies is tapping into the energy market through rule changes implemented by the Australian Energy Market Operator. These changes were finalised in AEMO’s 2022 release of the Integrated System Plan, more commonly know as the ISP. The ISP is effectively the blueprint for AEMO’s framework for the future energy market.

Commonly known as a virtual power plant or VPP, PowerSync aggregates energy generators at businesses such as solar, batteries and back-up generators as well as identifying flexible loads and enables a business’s energy profile to work in sync with the energy market.

“Operationally, if the market wobbles, we can dispatch energy to correct the frequency, equally, if prices shoot up as a result of demand, we offer up capacity from businesses on our platform. The rewards are three-fold, businesses get paid handsomely for helping, everyone benefits from lower energy prices and the entire energy market is more stable and resilient.” said David Naismith, CEO of PowerSync Technologies.

Naismith predicts that businesses have a huge opportunity to reap large rewards in the form of cost savings and from a CSR standpoint. “With business energy accounting for around 65% of energy consumption in the NEM, it is a no-brainer that we give them the tools to participate in the solution. The market reform is in largely in place, businesses just need the technology – that’s where we step in.”

Asking the largest consuming businesses for help when the grid is stressed has been around a while with various forms of basic demand signals and responses. However, technology with a lot of heavy lifting from AI has opened the door to a true two-way energy market.