CONSORT Bruny Island Battery Trial: Project Final Report - Project Results and Lessons Learnt

Australia’s high residential solar uptake is pushing our networks to their technical limits. Without alternatives, networks are faced with the choice of either limiting renewable uptake, or undertaking costly network upgrades, negatively impacting Australian householders. The CONSORT project aimed to develop and trial novel technologies allowing households to provide network support from their battery and PV system. At the same time, households would receive rewards and payments that properly reflect the value of this support, while continuing to enjoy the benefits of their system and the reduction in their electricity bill. CONSORT stands for CONSumer energy systems providing cost-effective grid suppORT. In CONSORT, the project team considered not only the orchestration algorithms underpinning network support from household systems, but also the pricing dimension of network support, as well as householder responses to the new technology. The technology developed was trialed on Bruny Island, Tasmania, where it contributed to reduce peak demand and diesel use.