New Charges for Homes with Solar: Impact on Australia’s Grid

Smart Energy Answers
May 17, 2021

The Impact of New Charges on Homes with Solar: Navigating Australia’s Electricity Grid

With the increase in solar installations across Australia, the electricity grid is starting to feel the pressure of a changing energy landscape.

More solar energy is being generated than ever before, and in some areas, excess solar electricity generation is creating “traffic jams” in the grid.

In Australia, an average of 20% of all customers now partly meet their electricity needs through rooftop solar power generation.

This is a significant increase from just 0.2% in 2007.

Currently, households sell their excess solar power back into the grid, placing increasing pressure on the electricity network.

Power is no longer only being distributed to homes. It is now also being exported from homes back into the grid.

The result is network congestion, or “traffic jams”, that can increasingly force power companies to limit or stop households from exporting solar energy back into the grid during high-congestion periods.

As a result, the Australian Energy Market Commission, or AEMC, has considered changes that could allow charges for rooftop solar exports in certain situations.

For a medium-sized solar system, this could mean an estimated annual return of around $900, with a possible reduction of about $70.
For households with larger rooftop solar systems earning more than $1,200 per year, benefits could be reduced by about $100.
For smaller systems between 2 kW and 4 kW, which are common for many households with rooftop solar, the reduction could be around $30 per year.
Another possibility is that households may be charged a fee if they export solar energy when there is congestion on the network.

Grid congestion is something worth preparing for, especially as more households continue to install solar systems across Australia.

Getting ahead of these changes can help reduce the risk of network strain, export limits, and future fees.

So, What Can You Do Now?

So, what can you do now to help avoid the changes coming as the grid adapts to increasing solar traffic?

Smart Energy Answers has the solution.

The VPP

Virtual Power Plants, or VPPs, are a network of individual solar batteries working together to sell, store, and trade electricity with the grid.

A VPP uses software to connect a household battery to a collection of local batteries within a community.

Together, these connected batteries can function like a local power plant.

By using locally generated energy, such as rooftop solar combined with battery storage, a VPP can help reduce overall network costs and congestion.

It can also help defer expensive infrastructure upgrades and reduce the need to purchase expensive power directly from power companies or government sources.

Introducing the Smart Community Package VPP

Smart Energy Answers has launched the Smart Community Program, a Virtual Power Plant, or VPP, designed to help turn individual solar battery systems into connected energy generators.

The programme can help households reduce energy costs while adding extra credit to their power bills.

During times of high demand, your energy provider may be able to access excess power from individual batteries and feed that power back into the grid.

This effectively means each individual battery is combined with others to create one large energy storage system.

The move to Virtual Power Plants means you and your community can benefit from lower energy costs, locally generated power, reduced blackout risk, and higher feed-in tariff opportunities of up to 45 cents on the network.

For more information or to join the Smart Community Program, call Smart Energy Answers on 1300 948 619.

You can also click here to get a quote today and start your innovative solar journey.