Named after electrical engineering pioneer Edith Clarke, the project will demonstrate a decentralised and cost-effective way of managing network capacity in a growing two-sided market, where services are bought from distributed resources (such as rooftop solar and electric vehicles (EVs)) to deliver cleaner, cheaper and reliable energy for all consumers.
A key feature of Project Edith is that both Ausgrid and Reposit Power will aim to leverage as much of their existing systems and process as possible to set out a practical pathway for the industry to mature over time.
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Typically, customers get “static” network tariffs and connection limits, meaning that they are the same seasonally or year-round. With the rise of rooftop solar, home batteries and soon to come electric vehicles, we have opportunities to develop more active tools and services to get more value from our electricity network.
Edith aims to test how the different tools can work together in practice in a way that achieves positive outcomes and be packaged up into a simple offer for customer involved in the trial.
Edith is exploring the use of tools such as:
The first phase of the trial will occur over 2022 and will involve sending DOEs and DNPs to Reposit Power, who is operating batteries on behalf of customers. This will demonstrate how Reposit can receive and respond to complex price signals from Ausgrid and the broader energy market while providing customers with a simple offer that provides certainty in their energy costs.
Project Edith Overview
This report provides an overview of the tools and approaches being trial as part of Project Edith.
Network support: a comparison of current and emerging solutions
This report compares dynamic network pricing with direct procurement and centralised marketplaces across a range of dimensions.
DEIP DER Market Integration Trials Summary Report
This Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) report provides a summary of Edith and other network CER integration trials.
During this time, she invented the Clarke Calculator (a graphic calculator that helps with circuit analysis) – her biggest invention. After this, she gave GE little choice but to employ her as an engineer and in 1922, at the age of 39, became the first professionally employed female engineer in the United States. She went on to set many firsts (including first female professor in engineering, and first to present a paper at American Institute of Electrical Engineers conference) – and she did this with little fuss. Clarke was known for saying, “There is no demand for women engineers, as such, as there are for women doctors; but there's always a demand for anyone who can do a good piece of work.” Her research on circuit analysis set new foundations for the industry through her solutions to power system losses across the US electricity grid. She authored two books that were set texts in the General Electric Advanced Engineering Program, Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems: Volumes I and 2 - Edith Clarke by John Wiley & Sons. To this day, she is remembered as one of the most notable women in modern science. |