Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering
This project would have the student conduct a literature review to assess the benefits that non-orchestrated DER bring to National Electricity Market (NEM). The NEM is currently transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewables, and while big decisions are being made at the big end (transmission, large scale renewable projects), the contribution at the small end (distribution, DER) may be being neglected. It is expected that the student will discover metrics such as the following can be used to assess the benefits; reduction in spot prices, provision of FCAS support, voltage regulation, and reduced distribution network build costs. All of these will stem from a fundamental change in residential load profiles due to DER. Assessing how the change in load profile might impact on the capacity expansion model used in the Integrated System Plan (ISP) is also of interest.
School
Research Area
Electricity network (NEM specifically) operation | DER operation | Techo-economic analysis for electricity networks
- Research Environment
- Expected Outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference Material/Links
Desktop study. The student would need to be familiar with the NEM, system operation (transmission and distribution level), and DER operation. Familiarity with open-source tool OpenCEM would also be helpful.
- Literature review on the potential benefits to electricity networks (including reduction in spot prices, provision of FCAS support, voltage regulation, and reduced distribution network build costs) due to non-orchestrated DER
- Analysis using OpenCEM which gives insight into how the change in residential load profile due to DER might impact on the ISP modelling.
