Energy for Everyone

CSIRO and Lake Macquarie City Council's Virtual Power Station (VPS) Project intelligently monitors and controls the output of many small renewable generation and storage systems to improve their uptake and cost effectiveness.

Electricity generated by these renewable systems - which varies with weather - is combined by the VPS to provide a single electricity supply. This supply offers significant benefit to the wider electricity network and could be sold at the owner's discretion - just as with conventional power from coal and gas - forming what is called a dispatchable supply.

What is being deployed and where?

CSIRO and Lake Macquarie City Council have deployed a VPS network connecting 20 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the Lake Macquarie Council area to the CSIRO VPS based at the CSIRO Energy Centre. Currently consisting of residential and council sites with photovoltaics, and two larger sites incorporating battery storage, the system is linked through a high speed (internet based) communications network. Storage elements allow the aggregate system output power to be reliably controlled despite the intermittency of the photovoltaic sources.