TCS implements Five Minute Settlement program for Australias utilities market

26 Jul 2022 , 12:21 PM

Tata Consultancy Services has helped Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), design and implement a futuristic solution that powers the Five Minute Settlement (5MS) Program, creating a more efficient energy market in the country with better outcomes for energy producers, distributors and consumers. AEMO is an independent organisation that manages all electricity and gas systems and markets across Australia; responsible for the settlement of the National Electricity Market which connects the grids of eastern and southern Australian states to create a wholesale energy market. Previously, AEMO has only been able to settle the market in 30-minute blocks, limited by its ability to segment the data. This created an inefficient pricing outcome and was identified as a contributing factor to disorderly bidding. To address these inequities, the 5MS rule change was introduced, shifting the current 30-minute wholesale electricity spot market settlement period to five-minutes, thereby providing a better price signal for investment in faster response technologies, such as batteries and gas peaking generators. It will also enable more efficient bidding, operational decisions, and investments, aligned to dispatch and financial settlement periods. TCS worked closely with AEMO to design and deliver a cloud-based platform-, leveraging DevOps, automated testing, and agile practices. The intelligent platform provides data ingestion, calculation, and reporting capabilities. It auto-scales to manage increasing data volumes, with 20.5 million daily meter reads expected by 2025 and 2 trillion data points by 2028, with minimal intervention. In addition, the solution provides APIs to connect all market participant systems to assure the integrity of market settlement while enabling future opportunities for AEMO to further introduce automation through artificial intelligence and machine learning. The move to 5MS was one of the smoothest transitions onto a new operating regime that Australian market participants have experienced. The platform has been operating without any disruptions to the energy market, setting the implementation benchmark for future market changes.Powered by Capital Market – Live News