Demand Response Explainers
These explainers are the background reading for the demand response work on this site. They cover the fundamentals in a deliberate order, how the wholesale market sets the price of electricity, how that price reaches your bill, what demand response actually means in practice, and how the same principles apply to a wastewater treatment plant. Each page stands alone, but they are written to be read in sequence.
The fundamentals
The NEM Explained. How Australia’s wholesale electricity market works, bidding and dispatch, five minute settlement, price caps and negative pricing, and regional pricing through interconnectors. This is the mechanics that create the volatility everything else on this site responds to.
Read: Understanding the National Electricity Market ->
Electricity Tariffs Explained. How a commercial or industrial electricity bill is actually built, energy, demand, time of use, network, and environmental charges, and which of them respond to shifting when you use electricity.
Read: Understanding Your Commercial and Industrial Electricity Bill ->
Demand Response Explained. What demand response actually means, load shifting, peak avoidance, and the dispatch of on site generation and storage, why electricity prices move so much, and what makes any site a good candidate.
Read: What Is Demand Response, and Why Does It Matter? ->
Applied to a treatment plant
Demand Response for Wastewater Treatment Plants. How the same principles translate to the specific assets on a treatment plant, effluent pumping, blower control against dissolved oxygen setpoint, biogas cogeneration dispatch, and solar and battery storage.
Read: Demand Response Feasibility for Wastewater Treatment Plants ->
The tool behind the numbers
Spot Price Forecasting. The forecasting tool that predicts wholesale prices from the next five minute interval out to a day ahead, and how it is tested against AEMO’s own forecasts, so a control scheme knows when to shift load rather than reacting after the price has moved.
Read: How My Spot Price Forecasting Tool Works ->
Where to from here
If the explainers have answered what you wanted to know, the next step is to see how this becomes a delivered control system, or to get a specific answer for your site.
See the process: How I Work ->
For the questions water utilities ask most often before committing to a feasibility study, see the FAQ.
If your question is not answered on the site, the fastest way to get a specific answer is to start with a plant assessment, which is also the first step of the feasibility study itself.