The challenge
Four challenges facing power generation owners
Compliance
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) demands owners have 24×7 control of their plant – even a solar farm. And the staff who control that plant and communicate with AEMO must be Australian based. Overseas control rooms are not accepted by AEMO for real-time NEM operations. All plants must also follow dispatch targets and if material deviations are not corrected in real time then costs will accrue and penalties may apply.
To navigate the complexity and structure of the NEM, ensuring compliance with legal and commercial protocols, as an energy asset generation owner you need the experience of Overwatch.
Complexity
The NEM is a complex blend of physics and market forces governed by detailed and ever-evolving rules and guidance. Previously, power sector professionals accrued years of knowledge and experience to understand the intricacies of things like: constraint equations, semi-dispatch caps, bidding rules and Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) calculations.
The requirements of the NEM are complex and ever changing and to succeed in the NEM, owners need deep and long standing experience which is not acquired overnight. You get there faster with the experience of Overwatch.
The solution
Overwatch Energy Experience
What Overwatch does
We provide what we call NEM Operations, to grid-connected wind, solar and storage, from utility through to VPP scale.
Overwatch becomes the interface between the asset, the market and AEMO and in doing so ensures compliance with the Rules.
Overwatch then monitors plant output in real-time, sees deviations from forecast real-time and responds quickly to minimise client losses and mitigate costs. Overwatch also re-bids plant where it makes commercial sense – in line with a strategy pre-agreed with the owner. Overwatch also invests heavily in reporting and time with clients.
And with our shared operations model, Overwatch provides this 24×7 capability backed by decades of experience at a fraction of what it would cost any single organisation.
How Overwatch delivers
Overwatch operates a genuine 24×7 operations function that is staffed by power sector professionals who all work in Australia.
Our systems and processes are fully digitised and we take whatever hardware, software or data our client already has and pull that into our own cloud-based systems. We compile their information alongside our market data and set up warnings and alarms appropriate to them.
We typically work for owners or asset managers and co-ordinate with the existing O&M contractors. We are independent of developers, asset managers, OEMs, PPA off-takers or bidding software vendors so our advice is impartial.