GreenSync to deliver new deX marketplace for DER with UK Power Networks

Australian energy-tech company, GreenSync, has been selected to deliver a digital marketplace for distributed and renewable energy as part of the world’s most advanced network control system in the United Kingdom.

Great Britain’s biggest electricity distributor, UK Power Networks, is implementing the cutting-edge system to manage distributed energy resources (DER) across its network area. It will enable over 500MW of DER – mostly renewable energy like wind and solar – to connect to the network quicker and easier, and power more than a quarter of a million homes.  

“We are proud to be working with the UK Power Networks and our partners Smarter Grid Solutions and Nexant in this globally significant, commercial project”

The project will be delivered by a market-leading consortium of GreenSync, Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) and Nexant. The project will utilise GreenSync’s Decentralised Energy Exchange (deX) as the market platform to connect and contract distributed energy resources, Smarter Grid Solutions’ ANM Strata as the core platform and Nexant’s Grid360 to provide control centre analytics and their iEnergy product as the customer interface.

The system will seek demand response on a least-cost basis, creating a world-first scalable marketplace for flexibility services that dovetails into operational system security and forecasting. In addition, it will reduce the time it takes to connect DER to the grid, help UK Power Networks defer infrastructure upgrades by enabling localised peak shaving/shifting, and provide power during planned and unplanned outages.

GreenSync CEO, Dr Phil Blythe says, “It’s incredibly exciting to be selected for this project. While deX was initially developed in response to Australia’s grid challenges with the increasing penetration of solar, it is being adopted for commercial applications internationally as networks move to a more decentralised, flexible architecture”. 

“This was the most comprehensive distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) tender to come to market”

“We are proud to be working with the UK Power Networks and our partners SGS and Nexant in this globally significant, commercial project that will realise a more flexible, efficient energy system and underpin the practical application of the Distribution System Operator (DSO) model,” added Dr Blythe. 

Bob Currie of Smarter Grid Solutions explained, “This was the most comprehensive distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) tender to come to market, bringing together market and technical platforms to allow UKPN to switch from functioning as a passive distribution network operator (DNO) to becoming a fully active and engaged distribution system operator (DSO), which can monitor and control DER of any type and size, across any time horizon.”

Through the development of this system, UK Power Networks says it is creating a platform for the network of the future – taking it further and faster than anyone in the world has done before. This business-as-usual project demonstrates that networks can harness the innovations and technologies that already exist, while opening the door to an almost limitless range of smart grid applications.

The commercially procured system goes live in late 2019 and will operate for 5 years.