Western Australia launches USD 25m virtual power plant project

Western Australia is kicking off an AUD-35.5-million (USD 25.4m/EUR 22.3m) project that will examine ways in which rooftop solar arrays and batteries can be used as a virtual power plant (VPP) to balance broad-scale electricity supply.

State-owned utility Western Power, energy retailer Synergy and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) will partner in the initiative, which is dubbed Project Symphony. The project will involve using 900 distributed energy resource (DER) solar and battery assets from selected 500 households and businesses in Perth’s Southern River area, the Australian government announced on Wednesday.

Electricity generated by the assets will be aggregated into a VPP that will dispatch excess supply to the grid similar to a traditional power station.

Synergy has begun recruiting eligible customers for the trial, which is set to run until June 2023.

"The uptake of solar energy is particularly strong in Western Australia, where more than 1.8 gigawatts (GW) of small-scale solar have been installed by households and businesses, and where around one in three homes now have rooftop solar," Australia's minister for industry, energy and emissions reduction Angus Taylor said.

The federal government is providing AUD 8.6 million through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The Western Australian state government will finance the project to the tune of AUD 19.3 million, with AEMO committing the remaining AUD 7.6 million.

(AUD 1 = USD 0.715/EUR 0.629)

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