What is FCAS?
In most of Australia, electricity is procured through the National Electricity Market (NEM). Every five minutes, large suppliers and consumers by and sell electricity in the Wholesale Energy Market.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) runs this market and typically ensures there is a balance between supply and demand. However brief fluctuations in each can cause the power system to deviate from typical operating frequency of 50 Hz.
As more renewable generation sources are integrated into the NEM, the occurrence of these momentary fluctuations can increase.
AEMO therefore runs a host of ancillary markets to balance these fluctuations. These markets differ in the type of response (power supplied to or drawn from the grid) as well as the speed with which the services are supplied. There are also markets to address ongoing requirements (regulation) or for unexpected events (contingency).
How can PowerSync assist?
PowerSync Technologies aggregates hundreds of assets across the NEM and bids them into markets based on AI-driven co-optimisation algorithms. When asset capacity is bid into the FCAS market, we receive payment from the market operator that we then share with our customers. This allows our customers to improve savings while simultaneously tapping into market revenues with their energy assets while helping the energy grid.