Building confidence for a rooftop solar powered future with Endeavour Energy
As rooftop solar adoption accelerates across New South Wales, distribution networks are under increasing pressure to manage large volumes of customer owned energy assets while maintaining grid reliability.
Endeavour Energy, a Distribution System Operator serving over one million customers across Sydney’s Greater West, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, Illawarra, and the South Coast of NSW, partnered with SwitchDin to address this challenge through an initial distributed energy resource pilot.
The pilot focused on managing 1,200 customer sites using Sungrow devices, with the objective of gaining visibility and control over rooftop solar systems through a single interface. By leveraging SwitchDin’s Grid Services Function and the IEEE 2030.5 industry protocol, Endeavour Energy demonstrated a scalable and standards based approach to distributed energy resource management.
The outcome positioned Endeavour Energy to confidently support future growth in rooftop solar and batteries while maintaining operational reliability and grid stability.
About Endeavour Energy
Endeavour Energy is a Distribution System Operator that serves over a million customers across Sydney’s Greater West, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands, Illawarra, and the South Coast of NSW. Its network spans more than 25,000 square kilometres in total.
As households increasingly install rooftop solar photovoltaic systems and home batteries, customers now play an active role in generating and distributing energy through distributed energy resources. This shift requires new approach
Challenges
The rapid growth of rooftop solar and distributed energy resources introduced new operational and technical challenges for Endeavour Energy, many of which are shared across the industry.
Key challenges included:
Limited visibility of rooftop solar systems connected through inverters from multiple manufacturers
The need to manage and monitor customer distributed energy resources at scale rather than individually
Ensuring new connection requests could be approved without increasing the risk of network congestion or overload
Preparing systems and processes for future mass adoption of rooftop solar and batteries
These challenges reflect broader industry concerns. The Australian Energy Market Operator has noted that increasing levels of distributed energy resources can impact voltage, system security, and operational complexity if not actively managed through coordinated solutions.
For Endeavour Energy, addressing these issues was critical to maintaining network reliability while continuing to support strong customer demand for rooftop solar connections.
To validate a scalable approach, Endeavour Energy initiated a pilot to manage 1,200 customer sites using Sungrow devices, with the intention of expanding to mass deployment if successful.
Solution
Working in close consultation and partnership with Endeavour Energy, SwitchDin first sought to understand the existing distributed energy resource management approach and operational requirements.
Through a series of workshops and joint development initiatives, SwitchDin introduced its Grid Services Function solution for the pilot. The objective was to enable Endeavour Energy to manage customer distributed energy resources through a single interface while gaining visibility into both production and consumption from rooftop solar systems.
The Grid Services Function is a pioneering solution designed to address the complex challenges of distributed energy resource management within grid infrastructure. It enables utilities to connect to and control fleets of distributed energy resources, creating new opportunities for coordinated grid services and scalable operations.
This approach ensured Endeavour Energy could confidently approve new connection requests without the growth of distributed energy resources compromising network performance.
Key Highlights
Over 1,200 customer sites managed during the initial distributed energy resource trial
Coverage across 25,000 plus square kilometres, including Sydney’s Greater West, the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands, Illawarra, and the South Coast of NSW
Use of the IEEE 2030.5 industry protocol for scalable distributed energy resource management across multiple inverter brands
Results
SwitchDin built confidence with Endeavour Energy through comprehensive testing, certification, and configuration of distributed energy resources connected during the pilot.
In collaboration with Endeavour Energy’s integration partner, SwitchDin delivered a clear pathway for integrating the Grid Services Function into Endeavour Energy’s existing IT infrastructure. This enabled Endeavour Energy to add, enrol, and integrate new distributed energy resources using the IEEE 2030.5 protocol through SwitchDin’s utility server.
This industry standard approach allowed Endeavour Energy to manage rooftop solar systems from multiple manufacturers with ease. The pilot demonstrated how distributed energy resource connections could be monitored and managed at scale, reducing the need to manage individual systems.
As a result, Endeavour Energy is positioned as a leader in sustainable energy management, with the ability to support future growth in distributed energy resources without compromising grid stability or operational efficiency.
