4.4.2 Benefits and challenges

• DER and connection point behaviour (including participating in markets for energy and ancillary services) is maintained within operating envelopes. • Physical and operational limits of distribution networks are not breached.

The suggested framework is deployed into cloud infrastructure and integrated with both DNSP and aggregator systems, which is an open-source technology framework [21]. It ingests the relevant network and DER data, making them available for analysis in a standards-based form. The calculation and publication of operating envelopes are implemented as a series of software modules and algorithms within the evolving framework.

As the first step indicates, DOEs can be considered a particular application or type of hosting capacity analysis. At the very least, DOEs depend upon hosting capacity calculation and the considerations and challenges in accurately assessing hosting capacity noted in Section 4.2 likewise impact the calculation of DOEs. Indeed, given the dynamic nature of DOEs, the data and computational challenges of accurately calculating hosting capacity likely become more significant.

4.4.2 Benefits and challenges

There are several benefits of operating envelopes at the current maturity levels of DER deployed within the electricity system: • Operating envelopes can address multiple use cases, including challenges currently being faced in electricity distribution networks and at the whole system level. • Once calculated, operating envelopes promise to be simple to implement across various DER assets and do not require the use of sophisticated local control and optimization systems. This can increase adoption and compliance from the variety of DER assets installed in Australian distribution networks. • Operating envelopes can be deployed progressively into different segments of a distribution network as they are needed.

Even DOEs are showing promising results to allow the distribution networks to accommodate more DERs and manage their import and export limits effectively. However, DOEs have some challenges: • Estimating the accurate hosting capacity results and their proper implementation in a use case. • Sharing the path of privacy and exporting and importing limits between customers and

DNSPs or vice versa, which may lead for more concern by DNSPs to consider cyber security issues. • Developing a secure and reliable platform which requires additional infrastructure (i.e., hardware and software), which add more costs. • Responding to the DOE can be affected by the immature technology, absent of standards and the technical ability for consumer systems. • DOEs may not provide a sufficient incentive to change consumer behaviour to effectively augment the capacity of the network to host DER, and so additional approaches are likely required.