Advisian was engaged to analyse the potential for demand management options to support the network during times of high demand.
The situation
Jemena owns and operates a diverse portfolio of electricity, gas and water transportation assets across the east coast of Australia, with more than $9 billion worth of major utility infrastructure. They were looking to investigate demand management options to defer investment in their electricity distribution network.
Our approach
Advisian was engaged to analyse the potential for demand management options to support the network during times of high demand. These options could allow the existing infrastructure to maintain supply during peak periods even if the load in future years was forecast to be higher than the system ratings.
A range of demand management options were considered for network assets where capacity investments were being considered. These options included: customer load curtailment, battery energy storage (10MW+), solar PV, energy efficiency and diesel and natural gas generation sets.
Financial modelling was undertaken to determine if any of the demand management options had a positive return compared to a network capacity investment.
Results
Advisian provided Jemena with a model that quantifies the possible benefits of each demand management option, based on estimates of the scale of the option and costs to implement. Jemena used this information to develop a demand management options report identifying where demand management can effectively be deployed on the Jemena network. This report was part of Jemena’s regulatory submission to the Australian Energy Regulator.
