Wholesale Demand Response

Businesses are earning revenue in today’s volatile energy market with Australia’s newest DR opportunity

What is Wholesale Demand Response?

In today's volatile market, the National Electricity Market (NEM) urgently needs new forms of power capacity to balance renewables and to maintain a reliable and secure electricity grid. Wholesale Demand Response allows large energy users to offer demand flexibility via our Virtual Power Plant (VPP) to provide critical grid firming capacity. This puts downward pressure on spiking electricity prices and earns participating businesses new revenue.

$200M

paid to customers in Australia & NZ

8.5 GW

global demand response capacity

150+

customers in Australia & NZ

Get paid for your flexibility

There are multiple ways to participate in the wholesale market, from providing the electricity of onsite backup generators to load reduction under the Wholesale Demand Response Mechanism. We advise our customers on the mechanism that best meets their site’s operational characteristics, commercial requirements, and sustainability objectives. Our customers earn a recurring new revenue stream, which can offset rising energy costs.

How does it work?

Grid need

The NEM coordinates the supply and demand of electricity every five-minutes through a dispatch process that produces a ‘spot’ price. This price reflects the real-time need for energy and will increase when demand becomes higher relative to the available supply. The market is signalling for more supply to be brought online when this price spikes. These situations can happen during very hot or cold weather events, planned or unplanned generation outages, or when there are other transmission issues.

VPP is called, customer responds

Wholesale Demand Response allows qualifying resources to offer their energy capacity into the NEM as a new source of power supply during these critical times. This helps AEMO to enhance the reliability of the system, while allowing VPP participants to earn the spot power price when they are called on.

Earn regular payments

VPP participants receive regular payments for when their power is provided to support the grid during a dispatch event. This reliable new revenue stream can offset electricity costs, or be reinvested into other sustainability initiatives.

The business opportunity

DR is increasingly valuable

The cost of power in the NEM is highly concentrated in critical hours. Wholesale Demand Response allows businesses to capture this value, which translates into a material reduction in the annual cost of powering their business. And as coal stations retire and renewable power continues to grow, the value of demand response is predicted to increase.

Demand Response Calculator

The WDRM is bankable

Unlike other mechanisms such as the Reliability and Reserve Trader (RERT) that rely on tenders, the WDRM is a permanent mechanism of the NEM, meaning businesses can count on an ability to participate and earn revenue year-round, year after year.

Wholesale DR is low risk

Wholesale Demand Response allows businesses to offer demand flexibility to the market while still buying their power through a traditional fixed price supply contract. This means you can participate without taking on any new risk or volatility in the price you pay for power. It works independently from your retail contract, allowing you to keep earning money from VPP participation each year, regardless of your retail supplier.

Participation can be flexible

While Demand Response is valuable, your core operations come first. Your participation can be designed around your operational priorities. Put simply, the market will take what you can give it. At Enel X, we understand your operations and then to design a plan which will maximise your earnings subject to your operational limits.