Building Intelligent Demand Response in South Australia
Advancing the use of demand response and distributed energy resources to benefit energy users and the system
In exciting news, Flow Power has been named as a successful participant in the South Australian Government’s Demand Management Trials Program.
This means, that we’ll be working to make it easier for more South Australian businesses to do demand response and be rewarded.
Watch the latest program update with Flow Power’s Senior Manager & Engineer George Charakos.
How will the program work?
Demand response rewards businesses for reducing their demand for power during peak energy periods. It helps prevent blackouts in South Australia and across the National Energy Market and allows businesses to take back control over energy costs.
We’ll be helping businesses automate demand response by leveraging market prediction algorithms and critical site information. Automated response to high price events can lower your energy bill and build efficiency and resilience into our energy system.
This project has received financial assistance from the South Australia Government through the Demand Management Trials Program.
Different scenarios to expect…
- Automatic non-essential load shedding
- Automatic load shedding dependent on on-site parameters such as room temperatures or process statuses
- Automatic load shedding authorised by your decision makers through SMS
We’ll work with participating businesses to find a level of automation that best fits their operations and schedules.
Who can get involved?
This program is for South Australian businesses that are interested in taking control of their energy usage. You do not have to hold a retail contract with us to participate.
If you have sites outside of South Australia and want to do demand response, there are alternative programs available.
Our commitment to South Australia
The Building Intelligent Demand Response program is part of our long-term commitment to South Australia.
We’ve built long-term partnerships with South Australian businesses, opened our South Australian office and started to build out a team that will help us drive the uptake of renewables in South Australia and support the system to transition to a low carbon future.
This is another exciting announcement on top of last month’s partnership with City of Adelaide and acquisition of Streaky Bay and Coonalpyn solar farms.
Flow Power’s demand response team won the Energy Efficiency Council‘s Leading Energy Management Innovation Award for 2024, recognising the innovation and success of the project.
Flow Power has finalised installation and commissioning of all automated demand response load under the South Australian Government’s Building Intelligent Demand Response program.
In collaboration with our South Australian customers, local electrical contractors and Government, Flow Power have contracted 20.7 MW of demand response load, encompassing a mix of backup diesel generation, biogas cogeneration, pivot irrigation systems, solar photovoltaic systems, refrigeration units, wastewater systems, and chiller and heating units.
Flow Power have been working across multiple industries, with demand response load registered with:
- City councils
- Hospitality hotels, wineries and breweries
- Dairy, chicken, sheep, pig, fruit and nut farmers
- Oat, grain, brick, paver and wool manufacturers
- Footwear and clothing companies
- School colleges
- Food product manufacturing and retailing
- Thermal energy storage facilities
- Sports and physical recreation facilities
Flow Power have commissioned 20.1 MW of this load, with the load now auto demand responsive. This has helped our customers save on energy costs, whilst helping the South Australian electricity network during times of both low and high electricity supply and demand.
- 20.7 MW of auto demand response load contracted
- 20.1 MW of auto demand response load commissioned
Mix of load contracted for low supply/high demand periods:
- 4.3 MW of backup diesel generation
- 2.8 MW of pivot irrigation systems
- 2.0 MW of refrigeration units
- 1.1 MW of chiller units
- 0.4 MW of heating units
- 0.1 MW of wastewater systems
- 1.5 MW of other aggregated load
Mix of load contracted for high supply/low demand periods:
- 7.0 MW of solar photovoltaic systems
- 1.2 MW biogas cogeneration
- 0.4 MW heating unit
We’re here to help.
If you’re interested in joining the Building Intelligent Demand Response South Australia program talk to one of our energy specialists!
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