FEATURE ARTICLES
VIRTUAL POWER PLANT PARTICIPATION A HAND-IN-GLOVE APPROACH FOR ECHUCA REGIONAL HEALTH By Stuart Darragh, Enel X with Mark Hooper, Echuca Regional Health
Echuca Regional Health is widely recognised throughout the region for its holistic and progressive approach to energy management and sustainability, with a proven innovation track record. The hospital is using a new approach to its backup generator testing with Virtual Power Plant (VPP) participation, where it tests its redundancy systems under true emergency conditions, and earns new revenue for supporting the power grid.
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chuca Regional Health features one of the largest solar thermal arrays in Australia, providing not only heating but also absorption cooling to the hospital’s high efficiency HVAC system, 1.2MW of thermal energy storage which is utilised for peak demand management, and a new 500kW solar photovoltaic array that is currently underway. In addition, the hospital has been utilising its backup generators to participate in a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) – a collection of distributed energy assets including backup generators, batteries, and
flexible loads that work together to provide additional dispatchable capacity to the grid – since 2017. Mark Hooper, Executive Project Manager at Echuca Regional Health said VPP participation is a natural fit for the hospital, helping it to enhance site resilience in the face of a weakening grid, and earn a significant new revenue stream which can be reinvested into backup power infrastructure to further enhance system reliability.
PROTECTION FROM UNPLANNED GRID DISRUPTIONS The rapid uptake of renewable energy and retirement of coal fired power plants is impacting grid reliability. Now more than ever, the grid needs additional flexible capacity from alternate sources such as VPPs to help stabilise the grid, reduce power prices and prevent broader power outages. For hospitals, VPP participation provides a unique benefit of advanced notification of potential grid disruptions. Hooper said, “We expect the grid to be reliable and clearly it’s not. We need to ensure our facility is available for its core purpose of providing primary healthcare 24-7-365. With participation we get advanced warning of instability on the grid, which is an advantage because it means we can prepare for a grid event and don’t have to experience a break in power if an outage occurs.” “We view VPP participation as another way of keeping our patients safe, because there’s not going to be an
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