Alstom to deliver its Demand Response Management System (DRMS) to Ergon Energy, Australia

Levallois-Perret, France, 16-9-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — Alstom has been awarded a contract by Queensland’s regional energy distributor, Ergon Energy to deliver its Demand Response Management System (DRMS). The project will be managed from Alstom’s offices in Sydney, with the software engineering being undertaken in Alstom’s facilities in the USA. The system will go live at the end of 2015.

The DRMS, based on Alstoms’ e-terraDRBizNet software allows Ergon Energy to incentivise consumers to reduce their electricity consumption during periods of high prices or peak demand. By using these incentive programmes, Ergon Energy is able to manage the electricity demand whenever the network is constrained.

In addition to managing demand, some of the key benefits of the DRMS system include the ability to defer capital investment in network infrastructure. Electricity consumers act as virtual power plants as they are compensated for voluntarily lowering their demand when the grid is constrained. Ergon Energy is able to treat this demand response capacity as a dispatchable resource that can be called upon when the need arises.  Therefore, the existing infrastructure and resources can be leveraged for longer with less need for ongoing or new investment.

The e-terraDRBizNet system will be hosted remotely by Alstom in the cloud, enabling faster delivery and more efficient support and maintenance of the DRMS platform for Ergon Energy. The DRMS is an extremely cost effective solution to manage demand in comparison to the costs associated with network expansion and upgrades. Under the contract, Alstom will also conduct customer workshops and training onsite with Ergon Energy.

The installation of the DRMS for Ergon Energy will be Alstom’s first DRMS in Australia, but second in the region. Transpower, New Zealand’s national transmission network operator, uses Alstom’s e-terraDRBizNet to manage its demand side management programs as well. 

About Alstom
Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation, power transmission and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world, provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 88,000 people in around 100 countries.

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