A Sydney-based pilot study aims to energize the dormant uptake of solar and batteries for apartment buildings by applying AI strategies to an existing modular power portal system.
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra, with Sydney-headquartered clean tech companies Voltval and JT Solar Technology, is conducting a Sydney-based pilot study to deploy and test an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered modular power portal system (MPPS) to improve energy flow between apartments.
Answering the need of 2.5 million Australian apartment dwellers nationwide, including one in three in NSW where just 3.5% of apartment dwellers have access to rooftop solar, and regulatory hurdles render plug-in balcony solar systems illegal, the pilot is using an MPPS developed by Voltval and JT Solar Technology, which forecasts energy generation and demand, coordinates distributed energy resources, and balances electricity flows between apartments in real-time.
The pilot will involve multiple sites across Sydney, including commercial and residential sites.
Backed by a AUD 1.2 million ($830,000) grant from the Australian Department of Education’s (DoE’s) Trailblazer Recycling & Clean Energy (TRaCE) program, the UNSW Canberra researchers’ advanced AI layer will better predict and improve energy use across multiple properties, making the platform smarter, more efficient and ready for real-world use.
