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September 29, 2020

Growing an innovative energy partnership across Australia

AGL, one of Australia’s leading integrated energy companies, is rolling out an innovative energy partnership with the help of Microsoft Azure Data Explorer. By allowing customers across the country to give back to the grid through remote management of networked solar batteries, AGL has created an innovative virtual power plant (VPP) that improves grid reliability, putting downward pressure on energy prices and helping customers save on energy costs.

AGL

Founded in 1837, AGL operates Australia’s largest private electricity generation portfolio. Serving 3.7 million customer accounts, the company supplies 20 percent of the total generation capacity within Australia’s national electricity market. 

A platform for energy partners

By connecting solar batteries located across homes, AGL’s innovative virtual power plant (VPP) forms the heart of an innovative energy partnership between retailers and consumers that is spreading through Australia.

After a successful trial in 2016, AGL’s innovative VPP concept was rolled out nationally. By connecting solar batteries located behind the meter in customer homes, the VPP allows customers to be rewarded for providing services to AGL to support the grid at times when energy is needed most.

“With the use of third-party platforms, we required a flexible, scalable platform for ingesting and making sense of the data we were receiving from the batteries,” explains Andrew Naish, Platform Delivery Lead, Integrated Energy Technology, at AGL. “We considered a number of different options, including those from Microsoft, and ended up settling on Azure Data Explorer. Firstly, it satisfied our criterion of being serverless, so we didn’t need to manage it. Secondly, it acts like a column store and aggregates data quickly.”

Naish continues, “We have functions that pull telemetry from a database―think of it like an HTTP client. From there, we pass the data straight into Azure Data Explorer, using the Kusto language to parse everything. Then we insert that directly into the database for use by various parts of the company. Some areas deal with end users and their residential batteries; others handle things like wholesale trading of energy. Kusto is great because it’s suited to time series data. If you’re in the Kusto Explorer, you can generate charts and graphs of how a single battery is performing, or how our entire fleet is performing collectively. You can do that in an ad-hoc sort of way, using small queries, which can be used to generate helpful graphs.”

Scaling at speed

By allowing customers to provide services to AGL to support the grid at times when energy is needed, the VPP creates more balanced consumption profiles, fosters improved grid reliability, and puts downward pressure on energy prices. It’s a solution that has won multiple industry awards for its forward-thinking approach to sustainable power management. 

“We went with Microsoft Azure Data Explorer because we wanted to go serverless, to have the ability to scale on demand―as well as taking advantage of the management of the OS and the security,” says Naish. “The key thing you’ll get from Microsoft that you don’t get from other vendors is the fully integrated experience. If you think of some of the other big cloud vendors, they don’t have a language, they don’t have an IDE, and they don’t have all the components. If you want to add something, you have to configure it yourself. With Microsoft, it’s completely integrated, from the IDE all the way to production. I think having that capability allows you to accelerate faster than you can in other environments. If I were to build something in a new team, I’d be taking a serious look at those advantages.”

With the help of Azure Data Explorer, AGL is looking forward to Australia’s renewable energy future, with significant growth plans that include consumer-facing apps and e-mobility. “Residential batteries are becoming popular, but so are electric vehicles. There’s going to be a lot of telemetry that we’re going to be pulling in. So, from a technical perspective, we need to look at how to scale beyond the borders of what we have now. It’s about having the technology backbone in place that’s able to create scale,” explains Naish.

It is a view that David Broeren, General Manager, Integrated Energy Technology at AGL, seconds. “A major focus is making sure we do our part in providing a smooth transition to clean, renewable energy in Australia. From a social responsibility perspective, it is really important that AGL lives its core values and delivers against its strategic priorities―growth, transformation and social license. It is important that we do our part.”

In recognition of its pioneering approach, AGL was awarded Gold in the Energy Grids and Network Enhancements category of the 2020 Edison Awards. The company’s “Bring Your Own Battery” plan was also named a Canstar Blue Innovation Award winner for furthering energy sustainability in Australia.

“A major focus is making sure we do our part in providing a smooth transition to clean, renewable energy in Australia.”

David Broeren, General Manager, Integrated Energy Technology, AGL

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