With Australia's EV sector set to boom, ARENA has expanded its focus to examine how EVs can be integrated into the electricity system. ARENA’s smart charging demonstration projects are aiming to take Australia's vehicle fleet into the 21st century.

The first reports from these projects focus on customer acquisition, software development and charger installation.

Image: Electric Vehicle Charging

• Read Origin's Lessons Learnt Report 
• Read AGL's Lessons Learnt Report 
• Read Jemena's Lessons Learnt Report 

As part of ActewAGL’s Realising Electric Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Services project ANU researchers have conducted interviews with trial participants, EV owners, industry leaders and others to learn more about attitudes toward V2G.
 

Read ANU's Interim Social Research Report 

In 2018 and 2019, ARENA invested $21 million in two ultra-fast charging networks to improve Australia’s EV charging infrastructure and help address range anxiety.

Over this period, ChargeFox and Evie Networks have been gathering valuable data about the establishment, operation and use of ultra-fast charging networks, which has recently been analysed by the team at Energeia.

Join our ARENA Insights Webinar on 5 August 9:30am-11am AEST, where we will share insights from this analysis, and host a panel discussion with representatives from Energeia and our ultra-fast charging networks Chargefox and Evie Networks.
 

Image: Ultra-fast charging station

Register for the webinar here 

Evie Networks have penned their latest lessons learnt report, covering field repair times, interoperability and standards and network availability. In addition, their site selection guide shares experiences on finding the right location for an ultra-fast charging station.
 

Image: Evie Charging Station
 

Read Evie Network's Lessons Learnt Report 

Read Evie Network's Site Selection Guide 

System security

• Powerlink produced its final report summarising the findings of itsstudy into the cost effective management of system strength. Read Powerlink's report.

Demand response (DR)

• AGL summarises the findings from its 3-year DR trial in this final report. Read AGL’s report
• South Australian iron foundry, Intercast and Forge, provides insight into technology used to curtail electricity use, alongside knowledge gained from the DR trial. Read Intercast and Forge’s report
• Flow Power summarises findings from its 3-year DR trial. Read Flow Power’s report

Short-term forecasting

• Fulcrum3D’s summarises the findings and achievements of its Wind Forecasting for the NEM project. Read Fulcrum3D Wind report
• Fulcrum3D summarises the findings and achievements of its CloudCam Solar Forecasting project at the 50 MW Kidston Solar Farm in Queensland . Read Fulcrum3D Solar report
• Advisian Wind and Solar’s short-term forecasting project developed machine learning models which draw on SCADA data as inputs to the models in partnership with Monash University. Read Advisian's report
• The Gridded Renewables Nowcasting Demonstration over South Australia project aimed to enhance weather forecast services by forecasting and predicting renewable output. The project has produced its second and third lessons learnt reports and an Insights Spotlight interview with Solcast Chief Technology Officer, Nick Engerer. Read Gridded Renewables Lessons Learnt report 2 and Lessons Learnt report 3. Read the interview with the CTO.
• The final report from Windlab’s LIDAR for wind forecasting trial shares findings from the trial. Read Windlab’s report

Solar PV R&D

• University of Queensland summarises the findings of its trial into an advanced solar farm diagnostics and reliability enhancement tool. Read UQ’s report
• The Alice Springs Future Grid project, led by Desert Knowledge Research Institute, focuses on addressing barriers to further renewable energy penetration in the local electricity network. The first Lessons Learnt report provides detail on the early stages of the project. Read DKRI’s report.
• Solar Analytics’ Monitoring for Better Energy Outcomes project, which aimed to accelerate deployment of an Australian-developed technology designed to monitor the performance of residential solar PV systems and provide low cost analytics and fault diagnostics. Read Solar Analytics’s report

Renewables for industry

• The Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI) aims to support Australian industry to develop pathways and actions to help critical supply chains reduce their emissions. The report focuses on understanding the current state of factors influencing decarbonisation in heavy industry, as well as the economic and technical opportunities associated with moving towards net zero emissions. Read the Australian ETI report

Battery Storage

• The Ballarat Energy Storage System (BESS) is a 30 MW / 30 MWh large-scale, grid-connected battery located at the Ballarat electricity station. Read about the battery’s performance and revenue opportunities in its Operational Report and Revenue report
• The Gannawarra Energy Storage System (GESS) report summarises the operations of its 25 MW/50 MWh lithium-ion batteryin north western Victoria from March 2020 to February 2021. Read GESS report

Distributed Energy Resources

• UPowr’s project aim to get a deeper understanding of customer values, motivations and cognitive processes that can be used to reshape the design, engagement, communication and presentation of battery orchestration programs. Their first report provides a detailed overview of the customer research and orchestration program design work completed as part of Phase 1 of the project. Read UPowr’s Report.   

Hydrogen

• Queensland University of Technology is developing a scalable and systematic process to evaluate the viability of decentralised and regional-scale renewable energy hybrid systems to generate hydrogen from sustainable resources. The mid-term report details key highlights and challenges of this project to date in areas such as electrolysis, gas sensing, pilot plant design and procurement. Read QUT’s report.