AGL to expand energy plan that allows householders to sell or share excess solar power

STRUGGLING households can look forward to discount electricity using a system that allows relatives and friends to share their excess solar power.

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STRUGGLING households can look forward to discount electricity using a system that allows relatives and friends to share their excess solar power.

South Australia’s biggest electricity company AGL has announced the successful trial and expansion of a so-called “peer-to-peer” trading scheme in Adelaide, which uses an app to share the power.

Since July, it has allowed 20 Adelaide homes to sell or gift extra electricity generated on their roofs to relatives, friends or even charities.

AGL spokeswoman Elisabeth Brinton said the company was finetuning the prototype internet app which makes the scheme work.

Adelaide resident Christine Odgers is passing on her excess solar power to family, rather than selling it back into the grid. Picture: Tait Schmaal

An Australian-first expansion of the trial scheme will follow for Adelaide, with house numbers yet to be determined, and other states will follow.

“In the coming months, we will expand the scope of the peer-to-peer pilot to more customers to test a new range of exciting features in the prototype app,” Ms Brinton said.

Peer-to-peer electricity sale is popular in progressive northern European countries but in Australia has only been the subject of one trial in Perth and a simulation in Melbourne.

It opens the way for solar electricity to become more widely available to those who cannot afford the upfront costs. Solar has long been criticised by the welfare sector, because for the environmental benefits, taxpayers subsidise those who can afford to pay to install rooftop panels.

Power giants also pay households for the electricity they produce. Uniting Communities utilities expert Mark Henley hailed the system as “part of the answer” for the state’s electricity crisis.

“We are very supportive of this approach and commend AGL. It opens up the possibility of the less well off being able to access cheaper solar electricity from a relative or even the bloke down the road,’’ he said.

“The only loser is the distributor of electricity in the system because peer-to-peer trading cuts out reliance on the grid, and allows people to bypass the grid to deal with each other.”

The system is a “virtual” internet-based one. It does not involve the actual transfer of electricity from one house to the other.

The solar generator feeds electricity into the grid as usual. AGL records what is used by the home “receiving” the power, and bills are calculated based on the price set by the selling household.

AGL keeps track of the electricity you are “sending” to an elderly relative or the church down the road and how much you are selling it to them for.

Ms Brinton said the scheme was becoming practical because of the uptake of batteries in recent years.

“As more of our customers install solar and batteries, they are playing an increasingly important role in the electricity system, and we are finding new ways to enable them to actively participate in that system and engage with each other and their community,” she said.

Households which generate the solar electricity can also win from the scheme.

By selling their electricity at slightly more than the very low feed-in payment they would otherwise receive, they also will make more money.

Trial participant Christine Odgers said she used less than half of the energy produced each day from the three kilowatt system installed at her home in 2015, leaving the balance to share with relatives in the AGL application trial.

“In one case this involves a young family with many priorities in their budget and another someone whose roof is not suitable for solar,’’ she said.