ARENA-backed research to boost participation in battery orchestration programs

With support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, UPowr is designing new battery orchestration programs that make the grid stronger and allow more solar homes to connect.

At a recent count, more than 2.7 million Australian homes had installed solar. The growth of residential rooftop systems has fundamentally been a positive change, but the rapid transformation taking place is challenging the way the electricity system works.

To regain control, authorities are finding new ways to limit the amount of energy solar homes can export to the grid.

These punitive restrictions offer one way to manage technical issues, but orchestrating home batteries has the potential to achieve similar benefits -- without the need to control and reduce the value of the customer-owned solar systems.

“Disruption rarely occurs without challenge.”

Adding batteries to residential solar installations keeps more energy “behind-the-meter”, avoiding the problems that arise when too much electricity flows back into the grid.

Networks are able to harness the energy from large numbers of home batteries to provide services that keep the grid stable, but unfortunately the uptake of home battery systems and the participation in orchestration programs has been lower than needed to be effective.

To safeguard the investment in solar made by households around Australia, and ensure that customers are incentivised to continue playing a key role in the evolution of Australia’s energy system, UPowr wants to boost the uptake of orchestrated battery systems in existing solar households.

The first phase of the ARENA-backed project has explored how a better understanding of customer values, motivations and cognitive processes can reshape the way battery orchestration programs are designed and promoted.

The project received $446,000 funding from ARENA as part of the Advancing Renewables Program, seeking ways to better integrate renewable energy into the electricity network.

By taking a customer focused approach, our goal is to create battery orchestration programs that align with the different values of different people – ultimately increasing their interest in participating in a program when they purchase a battery.

Different motivations

The project is informed by market research that identified the motivations that led people to install solar and batteries to help develop orchestration programs that will appeal.

Unsurprisingly, many people install solar to make their homes more sustainable. Some want more energy independence, while a segment is drawn to innovative technologies. Others just want to save money on their power bills.

The research shaped the development of six segments:

These findings are being used to develop new battery orchestration offers that appeal to people’s motivations.

There are a wide range of considerations around the markets the batteries will participate in and how they will operate, which in turn impacts the economics and customer experience.

Some of these choices might include:

• Will the battery operate in the wholesale energy markets at all times, or just on the rare occasions when high demand or shortages of supply cause electricity prices to spike?

• Should participants be paid for the revenue they earn, or receive something more like a traditional solar feed-in tariff?

• Should orchestration programs be linked to the customers energy plan or be contracted separately?

• Who will own the battery? Different ownership models could allow customers, energy retailers or third parties like financial institutions to own the battery hardware with benefits shared amongst the parties.

Three preliminary offerings have been developed to appeal to the segments identified through the research phase of the project.

The first is designed to increase financial returns for battery owners, with a focus on the Techies, Movers and Shakers and Pragmatists.

A second product has an emphasis on delivering value for communities beyond financial returns. By offering community-building rewards in the place of financial returns, this offer aims to appeal to Community Builders and Green Champions who want to achieve benefits from their investment beyond just personal savings and income.

The third offer is tailored to the Independence Seekers, who prioritise energy security and resilience for their households. This product assures that the battery system will be charged and ready if the household needs electricity, for example in the event of an outage.

The next phases of the project will develop the offers and work with partners to deliver them into the market.

Read the report

Read the full report on phase 1 of the project here.

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