Watch: Research Findings
Project Overview
Australians are rapidly adopting Consumer Energy Resources (CER), such as solar and batteries, transforming the way that energy is produced, shared, and used. But to create a flexible, consumer-centric energy system, many challenges need to be overcome. This includes helping consumers get more value from the energy they produce, making better use of abundant daytime solar energy, and enabling people locked out of CER to access the benefits.
Peer-to-peer energy trading is one way these challenges can be addressed. Deakin University received a Collaboration Grant to conduct a virtual energy network (VEN) trial to better understand the benefits of peer-to-peer energy trading for consumers and the grid.
What is a Virtual Energy Network?
A virtual energy network is a digital platform that enables households and small businesses to buy and sell solar energy through the existing electricity grid. It enables solar producers to sell surplus energy at favourable rates, consumers to access locally generated solar energy at competitive prices and community-wide utilisation of renewable energy.
Key findings
The findings of the study show that virtual energy networks:
- Increase the utilisation of CERs: Access to the platform shifts electricity consumption towards periods of high solar generation with suggestive, though likely not statistically significant, evidence of a stronger response on high solar days, indicating some alignment with the availability of excess solar generation
- Deliver financial benefits and sends effective price signals: Importing households pay lower prices for electricity, while exporting households receive higher prices for their generation. For importers, benefits include bill reductions from lower prices and behavioural responses that alter the pattern of electricity consumption, with heterogeneity across users; and
- Improve perceptions of fairness in the energy system: Participants report increased confidence that the energy system is fair, suggesting that well-designed market mechanisms can enhance both efficiency and social licence.
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Available grants
Our grants program funds research and advocacy initiatives that further the interests of Australian household and small business energy consumers. Grants and scholarships are available to support small and large projects, organisations and individuals, with application rounds opening at key points across the year.