Overview
Project Edith, named after the pioneering electrical engineer Edith Clarke, began as a ground-breaking demonstration project between Ausgrid and Reposit Power in late 2021. After the initial success, more partners joined the project to explore new ways for customers with batteries to participate in energy markets via Virtual Power Plants. The project showcased how dynamic pricing can help facilitate the participation of clean energy solutions such as solar, battery, and EV in the energy market while remaining within distribution network capacity limits.
Project Edith has demonstrated that creating an end-to-end dynamic network pricing service based on existing systems is possible.
Edith tested ways in which dynamic network pricing can be used to:
- Remove barriers to the participation of customers' energy resources in energy markets through efficient pricing
- Allocate distribution network capacity in a decentralised manner through dynamic allocation and;
- Incentivise network support, such as voltage support from customer's energy resources
The "Edith model" is a system in which we base network charges on the actual conditions for a particular customer at a specific time and location. This model is opt-in and can be accessed through retailers, making it easy for customers to participate. Negative export prices are used as a price signal to indicate that the network is constrained, and customers who choose to export will receive payment for providing network support. Customers will be incentivised to provide network support during these periods.
The project offers a path to providing fairer pricing for customers who modify their energy usage in ways that support network stability and electricity demand. For example, exporting their excess battery power during peak demand can help them save money. The work is providing valuable insights for the entire energy industry, from retailers to distributors and equipment manufacturers.
