Electrical Connection Autumn 2017

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Light is confidence
Job done… Gone surfing!
When you choose LEDVANCE luminaires you can be confident that you will spend
less time dealing with nuisance call outs and more time doing the things you love.
Quality lighting trusted by sparkies all over the globe.
Batteries may have up to four additional
modes: DRM 5 “do not discharge to grid”, DRM
6 or 7 “discharge permitted at reduced load”
and DRM 8 “discharge to grid requested.” The
remote agent would activate DRM 8 when
the value of export is high.
This demand response framework has
taken 12 years to develop. It is simple, cheap,
reliable and proven. There are over 850 AS/
NZS 4755-compliant air conditioner models
on the Australian market, and Energex
nowmanages over 70,000 air conditioners
connected to DREDs in south-east Qld during
a few critical periods. In addition, five AS/NZS
4755 batteries have been claimed as AS/NZS
4755 compliant by manufacturers/suppliers.
These batteries systems are also currently
being tested with Energex.
Utilities and demand response aggregators
are investigating DREDs with WiFi, internet or
4G communications, and the pairing of the
DRED to smart meters. There are other ways
of achieving demand response, but these
tend to rely on proprietary combinations
of product and software, and may lock
the customer into dealing with specific
manufacturers and utilities.
AS/NZS 4755 is a true open standard:
any 4755-compliant DRED will work
with any 4755-compliant appliance. The
communications mode of the DRED and the
remote agent can all change, without having
to change appliances. In fact, future DREDs
could cut out the remote agent, monitor
electricity prices and manage 4755-compliant
products according to the customer’s
pre-programmed preferences. Again, the
appliances would not need to change.
AS/NZS 4755 is not a mandatory standard.
Air conditioner manufacturers offer compliant
products because under programs like
Energex Peaksmart customers receive money
for each PeakSmart air-conditioner when they
connect to a DRED. The PeakSmart Program
has shown that very few notice when the unit
is made to operate at reduced load for limited
periods. It is likely that utilities and demand
response aggregators will offer similar
incentives for other 4755-compliant products,
including batteries.
As the Australian market for this technology
continues to grow, global players are taking
notice. The AS/NZS 4755 series has and
continues to be recognised internationally
as an early and influential example of
standardising demand response and load-
matching functionality.