Flexible Hot Water

Why is this important?

880MW of residential rooftop solar is currently connected to Powercor’s network – and this number is growing every year by around 10 per cent.

All this clean, affordable energy is reducing the amount of electricity customers are drawing from the network, which is great for all customers, but it can create complications when excess energy exported to the grid has nowhere to go.

For customers that rely on the network for their electricity, falling demand can create problems by reducing the minimum demand needed to support a range of network services from voltage management to inertia.

Our role, in addition to providing a reliable electricity supply, is to balance supply and demand in a world increasingly made up of intermittent renewable energy, while adapting to changing consumption behaviour driven by customer energy resources.

It’s called the see-saw, balancing supply and demand in real-time using controllable loads and generators connected to the low-voltage network.

By being smart about how electric hot water systems are managed, we can continue to supply a safe, reliable supply of electricity to all customers, while improving how we manage renewable energy for everyone’s benefit.

How does it work?

Currently, more than 140,000 customers connect their hot water systems to a controlled load circuit.

This allows us to remotely shift this load and pass on the savings to its customers in the form of a controlled load tariff.

The controlled load tariff was first developed to increase operational demand in the early hours of the morning.

By shifting this hot water fleet to the middle of the day when solar energy is abundant, we can make the most of the growing supply of energy, keep costs down for all customers and leverage its existing smart metering fleet at no cost.

How do I get involved?

Flexible hot water is one of the first flexibility markets being explored by us, and all customers who own an electric hot water system will be rewarded for shifting their electricity consumption to meet network demands.

Although this will only be made available to Hot Water Load Control customers today under the existing controlled load tariff, we predict flexibility markets for a range of appliances, including heat pumps, air conditioners and electric vehicles, will be available within the next five years.

We’ll conduct network and customer experience research during the trial which will be made available through a combination of industry forums and reports published on this webpage.

This will help inform the development of new tariffs and customer services in collaboration with industry stakeholders.

If you would like to receive updates or if you have any questions about the trial, visit the Engage Powercor website to submit your feedback, or email hotwatertrial@powercor.com.au.

Eligible customers for the trial will be contacted directly.