Transpower Flex Visibility Project

In 2024, Ara Ake teamed up with Transpower, the System Operator (SO), to explore ways to enhance the visibility, coordination and measurement of flexibility resources- such as solar batteries and other distributed energy resources (DER) – for market participants and SO control room coordinators. This initiative is especially critical during periods of tight forecast capacity residuals.

Why visibility matters

On 9 May 2024, Transpower asked New Zealanders to reduce electricity use between 7am and 9am due to a potential supply shortfall caused by low wind generation and an unseasonal cold snap. Transpower estimates that approximately 260MW of demand response was activated, but without clear visibility into available flexibility resources, managing future grid challenges remains complex.

Read more: New Zealanders asked to reduce power use tomorrow morning

Read more: Transpower thanks New Zealanders for reduced power use this morning

To address these challenges, Ara Ake and Transpower teamed up in winter 2024 and launched the Transpower Flex Visibility Project to:

• Find ways to reduce control room uncertainty
• Enhance visibility of available flexibility resources in real-time
• Develop tools and processes to enable the transition to full market-participation of flexibility resources

There is also work to be done to develop mechanisms for signalling need, dispatch and verification of demand response being delivered.

Project scope and key initiatives

The Transpower Flex Visibility Project built on the success of the previous winter’s innovation pilot with SolarZero, expanding to:

• Engage multiple flexibility providers (large and small)
• Provide SO coordinators a single locationally-aggregated view of flexibility resource availability in real-time
• Advance a dispatch-notified flexibility product for winter 2025

‍ This project was originally referred to as the North Island Flexible DER Initiative but expanded to encompass all of Aotearoa New Zealand.

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The role of Flexviz and DERMS

Our project delivery partner, Cortexo Ltd, developed the Flexviz platform, an OpenADR-based system supported by Ara Ake. Flexviz features:

• Connects to Transpower’s distributed energy resources management system (DERMS)
• Enables the SO control room to visualise the extent of flexible resources available in real-time.

Learn more about Flexviz.

Read more about Flexpoint, the SO DERMs.

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DER providers and market impacts

The Transpower Flex Visibility Project involved multiple flexible DER providers in winter 2024, including SolarZero, Revolve,Thundergrid, Nexbe, EVisi, and IvoryEgg, totalling 40 MW of flexibility visible on the Flexviz platform.

It also provides the SO control room with a single, locationally-aggregated view of the expected response from flexible DER capacity. In addition to the flexibility suppliers connected directly to Flexviz, the SO has onboarded additional suppliers, including Blackcurrent, OpenLoop, and NZ0 Cherry Farm, which connect directly to Flexpoint.

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Next steps

Looking ahead, Transpower, Cortexo and Ara Ake are collaborating on a “Fake Flex” detection algorithm, which enables flexibility providers to establish and confirm delivery of a service, sometimes referred to as “negawatts”(negative watts) of demand response.

To learn more about this, get in touch with Transpower's Flexibility Manager Michael Richardson, or reach out to Ara Ake.

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Media

10 June 2024: Projects Flexviz and FlexTalk to increase accessibility and visibility of flexible energy resources

23 August 2024: Bringing flexibility resources into the spotlight with the North Island Flexible DER Initiative