Smarter energy for commercial and industrial refrigeration sector

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced $3.7 million in funding to Enel X to demonstrate and scale flexible demand solutions in the commercial and industrial refrigeration sector. The ‘Unlocking Flexible Demand in the Commercial Refrigeration Sector’ project seeks to recruit 440 supermarkets and 13 refrigerated warehouses to aggregate 20.9 MW of flexible demand across the National Electricity Market.

The supermarkets and warehouses will participate within Enel X’s virtual power plant (VPP) to provide services supporting Australia’s electricity system. The facilities involved will help alleviate grid constraints and support the supply of electricity to consumers while being financially rewarded for doing so via Enel X’s VPP.

With an estimated 500 MW of potential flexible demand in refrigeration across Australia’s supermarkets, grocery stores, beverage shops and warehouses, commercial and industrial refrigeration provide a source of flexible demand on a large scale. Flexible demand is the coordinated orchestration of electrical load to ease pressure on the grid. With renewable sources such as wind and solar producing a greater share of Australia’s electricity generation, solutions are required to match up supply and demand.

Energy storage is part of the equation, but it can be complemented by shifting demand away from peak times and reducing demand at critical times, helping reduce the overall cost of energy and support integration of renewables into the grid.

Refrigeration offers a valuable source of flexible demand due to the thermal mass of facilities maintaining temperatures when refrigerators and chillers are ramped down. Small changes to power usage can have a large impact when aggregated to scale without any noticeable change for users or impact on product quality.

Enel X has recruited a Tier 1 Grocery chain as its initial supermarket partner, piloting 20 stores with the aim of extending up to 250 stores participating in the VPP. Lineage Logistics will also be involved in the project with 13 refrigerated warehouse sites. Enel X is actively recruiting commercial refrigeration businesses across supermarket, grocery, beverage, convenience and last mile logistics to fulfil ARENA’s 440 store funding support.

The project aims to demonstrate the business case for flexible demand solutions in refrigeration and to lessen the risk of uptake of new technology for prospective demand response providers.

The project is designed to pave the way for further investment in flexible demand, according to ARENA CEO Darren Miller.

“Our electricity grid is changing, and a more variable supply requires more flexible demand,” Miller said.

“Commercial refrigeration can unlock this opportunity at a material scale, so we’re excited to see the Enel X project rolled out across Australian supermarkets and other businesses with refrigeration.”

Jeff Renaud, Enel X APAC Managing Director, said ARENA’s support will help in demonstrating that small-scale refrigeration systems can make large-scale contributions to the renewable energy transition when plugged into a virtual power plant.

The ‘Unlocking Flexible Demand in the Commercial Refrigeration Sector’ project is due to be completed in 2027.

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