Krystal Skinner – Innovation & Growth Tribe Lead

Working with the customer to create a decentralised energy future

Creating a brighter energy future for all Western AustraliansPowering more than 1 million homes and businesses with over 100 years experience of adapting to our customers’ changing needs.

WA’s local energy experts

And largest electricity generator and retailer of gas and electricity* – all backed by the State Government since 1883.

Voted ‘Australia’s most trusted energy company

Roy Morgan Net Trust Score survey - October 2018

Stronger community partnershipsWith WALGA, WACOSS, AHA, Lifeline and financial counsellors to better support local businesses and families in need.

Dedicated renewable program 30 years in the making

Delivering many Australian firsts along the way including the 1st utility-scale solar farm (Greenough river 2012),

first commercial wind farm (Esperance 1987) and the first community energy storage trial (Alkimos Beach 2015).

Exploring cleaner, smarter ways to make, store, use and trade energy

Joint venture with Cbus and DIF to create ‘Bright Energy Investments’ – building

210MW of large-scale renewable energy projects in the SWIS)

* We own and operate power stations in the electricity grid called the SWIS which extends from Kalbarri in the north, east to Kalgoorlie and south to Albany.

10 years from now…Another busy day – can’t wait!

Today I’m working from home so I’m not going to need my (fancy, driverless) car – but it does need charging.

I’ve plugged it in to charge, Alexa asks me if I want to charge it via my own solar panels or via my local community trading scheme. She recommends that I’ll be better off charging via the community and using the energy generated by my solar roof tiles to power my home and charge my battery.

I can’t believe it’s going to be the third day over 43 degrees – thank goodness for air con, I need to crank it up more.

It’s 3.30pm but the sea breeze still hasn’t kicked in – I’m melting!!

Alexa interrupts my 80s playlist to tell me that she’s adjusted the temperature of my aircon back up to 24 degrees, otherwise my battery will not charge enough to cover tonight’s usage and I’m at risk of going over my off peak cap. Party pooper!

Still melting… “Alexa, turn the air-con back down to 20”. I’m happy to pay the extra ‘$10 for the 50 off peak (electrons) – Synergy takes care of it all automatically anyway (via their energenie).

I’m just going to have to let mum know that I won’t be sharing any credits with her this month, but once it cools down…

Goodnight Alexa

Remember the good old days…

In the past, our relationship with customers was a simple one-way transaction.

Transformation was focused on reducing operational costs or sending customers an electronic copy of their bill.

Customers didn’t have much choice over where, when or how they sourced their energy needs.

Energy demand was easy to manage and steadily increasing.

We generated the power

You used it

We sent you a bill

Costs were recovered.

With a little bit of margin on top

But as energy prices continued to rise

New technologies enabled innovation & choice

Setting a new benchmark for customer expectations

So customers started switching to something betterMore than 1 in 4 homes now generate their own energy during the day (in the SWIS)

And we’re only in the early days of disruption

As the transition to something very different, very fast accelerates.

EY’s recent global study on the utities sector has calculated the 3 critical tipping points that underpin this paradigm shift to a decentralised energy future across Australia:

1. Decarbonisations & decentralisation of energy assets

2. Electrification of transport

3. Digitisation and democratisation of data

2021

Distributed solar and storage energy

reaches price & performance parity

with grid-energy*

2025

EVs reach price

and

performance

parity with petrol

vehicles*

2040Cost of

transporting

electricity exceeds

the cost of

distributed solar

and battery** Source: EY Countdown clock - Oceania

That’s why we’ve had to flip our thinking

By putting the customer at the heart of everything we design, deliver, do.

Because at it’s core, disruption isn’t about technology - it’s about people and businesses choosing a better experience.

Technology just enables their choice.

Driving our imperative to test innovative solutions and explore new ways of working…

Redesigning our employee experienceTo ensure we’re more responsive to changes and disruption and utilising the right capabilities across the business to deliver value for customers.

Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Increasing adaptability

Trialing new technology and innovation within the WA market To test and learn which solutions can deliver viable energy solutions for customers and the state tomorrow.

1 key insight so far…

The community has saved a

total of $31,384 off their

collective energy bills since the

trial started in April 2016.^.

Partners

• Western Power, Landcorp,

Lendlease

Alkimos Energy Storage Trial

Trialling how community scale

batteries combined with energy

efficiency incentives may help

reduce household energy costs.

1 key insight so far…

Since the trial started,

participating households have

saved on average $111.97 per

household.*

Participants + partners

• 53 customers, 2 year trial

• Western Power

Powerbank

Australian-first utility scale

battery trial in established

network – incentivising

customers to maximise their

solar PV investment via a

virtual storage solution.

EV Home Plan

Simple tariff that seeks to

encourage the adoption of EVs

whilst shifting consumption

away from peak periods.

1 key insight so far…

Customers are willing to shift

more of their consumption to off

peak times (11pm – 4am) peak

to off peak - 37% compared to

17% for A1 REBS/FIT

customers.

Participants + partners

• 73 customers, ongoing

1 key insight so far…

Limited ability to deliver more

affordable energy in WA’s

capacity market (higher fixed

costs). May be more suited to

microgrids or more volatile

markets.

Participants + partners• 14 customers, 6 month trial

• Powerledger, Western Power,

EnergyOS, Curtin, City of Freo

RENeW Nexus

Peer to Peer trading trial using

blockchain technology to

support local communities to

leverage data to become more

efficient and sustainable.

1 key insight so far…

Batteries can respond to peak

afternoon demand load faster

and cheaper than traditional

assets (on sunny days.)

Participants + partners

10 participants, 1 year trial

VPP technology trial

Testing the functionality of 6

different VPP providers -

coordinating an aggregated

demand response to a

planned/unplanned event

schedule event

^Savings are approximate and calculated by applying the Peak Demand Saver Plan rates to average historic consumption, usage pattern and generation based on previous 12 months up to 5 July 2018 – compared to charges that would have been incurred at the standard A1 (Home plan) rates.

*Average Estimated savings only calculated by comparing consumption and costs incurred by trial participants on the PowerBank Trial and the A1 Home Plan over the same period (for the period between 07/11/2018 to 30/04/2019).

Co-creating solutions with customers, other utilities and a broader range of community organisations on a regular basisTo find more holistic solutions for the future and to ensure no one is left behind.

To safely transition Western Australians to THEIR new energy future (not ours)No matter where it leads us.

Source: Retail Strategy team

Energy Storage (Existing)

• Battery storage for maximising self

consumption, back-up power and peak load

reduction

• It gives flexibility to distributed generation and

potentially enables off-grid solutions

Solar panels (Existing)

• As the cost of solar PV continues to

decrease, and efficiencies continue to

increase, more and more residential

customers will take advantage of

surplus roof space

Smart meters

• The wide-scale roll out of AMI

metering technology will provide

retailers with more data about their

customers energy needs

• New products will be designed that

better reflect how their customers use

energy

Smart home

• The home of the future where

appliances and the grid are

connected to automate decision

making and improve customer quality

of life

Virtual Power Plant

• As the uptake of battery storage

increases, centralised management of

multiple household systems enables

VPPs to act as one single dispatchable

generator

• During the peak hours when power is

most expensive, participants can be

incentivised to feed excess generation or

storage back in to the grid

Embedded networks

• Smart sub-metering & billing solutions enables

new products and services to be offered to

customers in traditional sub-metered set–ups

(apartments, retirement villages, etc)

• It also enables innovative community precinct

energy models for new developments where

shared solar and storage become a reality

Smart energy services

• Real-time alerts and price signals to

customers will help reduce

inefficiencies

• Demand response enabled

appliances shed load from the grid

and may help consumers save money

during peak demand with the right

tariff incentives

Power purchase agreements

• PPAs allow customers to purchase their energy

from non-traditional sources such as 3rd party

owned solar PV and battery storage systems

• PPAs can also be used to allow customer to

trade energy amongst themselves on a large

scale or to donate excess power

Electric Vehicles

• Customer will look to leverage

investment in larger solar PV and

battery systems through EVs

• In the future, the car batteries can be

charged off-site from renewable

sources and serve as additional

backup storage for the home and the

grid

Microgrids

• Where customers do not have direct access to

roof space, precinct energy solutions

(embedded microgrids) i.e. embedded networks

coupled with larger scale solar PVs and

community battery storage will offer customers

more choice in when it comes to purchasing

energy in the future

Remember Kodak?

Because tomorrow can’t wait

Krystal.skinner@synergy.net.au

Thank you