Rule change lets batteries earn more for power into grid Mark...

Rule change lets batteries earn more for power into grid


Mark Ludlow
New rules by the Australian Energy Market Commission will make it easier for households with batteries to earn money by putting power back into the grid during peak times.
As part of another overhaul of the National Electricity Market to deal with the rapid influx of renewables into the grid, the AEMC has proposed overhauling the way both large and small-scale batteries are integrated into the electricity network.
It said the proposed changes will help level the playing field for market participants with energy storage assets.
At the moment, market participants with batteries have to register twice with the Australian Energy Market Operator – both to draw energy from the grid and to send it out. The new category will allow aggregators to recognise small storage units and provide energy and ancillary services.
‘‘For small customers [those with batteries smaller than 5 megawatts], this will open up opportunities to earn more revenue for their home battery, because they can sign up with innovative new aggregator businesses who will pay them for using their battery at certain times,’’ the AEMC said in its draft rule interpretation, to be released today.
‘‘At the moment, aggregator businesses can only provide energy one way, but our changes will open up new business models for them.’’
The proposed changes complement the Energy Security Board’s attempt to make the energy grid more flexible as part of its post-2025 market design.
AEMC chairwoman Anna Collyer said the proposed rule changes – including the creation of new markets to financially reward ultra-fast energy providers like batteries for providing frequency controls normally provided by coal or gas-fired power stations – were an acknowledgment that energy was ‘‘no longer a one-way transaction’’.
‘‘The energy market is moving to a future that will be increasingly reliant on storage to firm up the expanding volume of renewable energy as well as address the growing need for critical system security services as the ageing fleet of thermal generators retire,’’ Ms Collyer said.
‘‘Within two decades, installed storage is expected to increase by 800 per cent - it will be central to energy flowing two ways.’’
Ms Collyer said the proposed battery rule change would encourage the further uptake of home energy storage to complement Australia’s already high penetration of rooftop solar systems.
It will also likely result in lower power prices for consumers, the AEMC report found.
‘‘This change works in tandem with our existing proposals on distributed energy resources currently under consideration, which are designed to make home batteries a more attractive way to maximise solar investments,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s also central to the commission’s plans to make the rules more forward-looking so that they work for technology that hasn’t been invented yet.
‘‘If we make the rules more elastic to focus on what market service you offer rather than who you are, they will stay relevant in the face of rapid change and support energy innovation. And it lays important foundations for the Energy Security Board’s post-2025 market design to become operational.’’
A final decision on the battery rule change will be made by October this year and come into effect after 2023.
The AEMC also released a final determination to create a fast frequency response market which will provide a new income stream for batteries, aggregator and hybrid businesses and other fast responders that can provide almost instant system stability services for the grid.
There are already frequency control ancillary services markets available, but until now the fastest service was six seconds. The implementation of these markets has been brought forward to October 2023.