Skip to content

Project symphony our energy future infographic

Orchestrating tomorrow’s energy system today

How we generate, manage and consume energy is changing.  

One in three households in Western Australia has rooftop solar, equivalent to almost 2 gigawatts of renewable energy generation. Collectively, this represents the largest source of electricity generation on the South West Interconnected System (SWIS). 

Growth in consumer-owned distributed energy resources (DER), such as rooftop solar panels, in-home batteries and electric vehicles, will increase further as more solar systems with integrated battery storage come online. 

However, the widespread uptake of rooftop solar creates challenges and opportunities for the delivery of electricity.  

Why? 

A high proportion of decentralised, unmanaged DER poses a risk to the stability of the State’s power network. This is caused by low or fluctuating energy demand at critical times.  

What is Project Symphony? 

Project Symphony is an innovative pilot project designed to ‘orchestrate’ approximately 900 DER assets across 500 homes and businesses in the Southern River area s of Atwell, Harrisdale and Piara Waters into a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).  

The VPP aggregated the electricity generated by the DER and dispatch excess supply to the network in the same way as a traditional power plant.  

Where is the Pilot happening? 

The Southern River areas of Harrisdale and Piara Waters were chosen for the pilot due to the high uptake of rooftop solar - over half of all homes in the area have solar systems installed. 

The VPP  will help create a more stable and efficient localised electricity system with implications for the entire network. 

Who are the project partners? 

Project Symphony is a collaboration between Western Power, Synergy and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to help us better understand the future design of Western Australia’s electricity system. It is an important part of the Western Australian Government's Distributed Energy Resources Roadmap, which commits to creating a cleaner, greener energy future. 

Project Symphony has received support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of ARENA's Advanced Renewables Program.

The pilot incorporated knowledge and lessons learned from similar projects undertaken in the eastern states and overseas and applying these to the unique challenges facing the Western Australian energy system.  

The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government, and the Australian Government does not accept responsibility for any information or advice contained herein. 

Reports