SA Power Networks plan to fix grid by charging rooftop solar owners to export energy
Rooftop solar owners should pay to use the grid when they earn feed-in tariffs, SA Power Networks says. It would fund a better system, make more money for solar owners and power cheaper for all households.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Owners of new solar panels would have to pay a fee for selling the energy they generate into the grid, under a formal bid initiated on Thursday to change the electricity market.
Power would be cheaper for households which don’t have solar and benefit solar owners, electricity distributor SA Power Networks said.
“Customers would be surprised to know that they don’t have a right to export energy from their systems under the current national electricity market rules,” SAPN general manager Mark Vincent said.
“After more than 10 years of customer investment in rooftop solar, the rules need to catch up and facilitate future investment in solar and emerging technology such as batteries and electric vehicles.”
SAPN, the Australian Council of Social Service and the St Vincent de Paul Society have made overlapping requests for a major rethink of the market.
Their submissions have been lodged with rule-setting body the Australian Energy Market Commission, which will now consult and decide on the request.
SACOSS chief executive Ross Womersley said people who can’t afford solar are bearing the burden of high power prices.
Those with solar not only pay less because they buy fewer units which include the cost of the grid but they get paid a feed-in tariff to export power into the grid.
“So anybody who hasn’t got solar ends up with a much bigger proportion of the costs,” he said.
Mr Womersley urged solar owners not to fear change.
“They should be more alarmed that if we don’t get on with doing this carefully we will be left with a much more unstable grid and it will cost us more as a community to counterbalance that,” he said.
Solar owners were already losing out, Vinnies energy analyst Gavin Dufty said.
Overloaded systems trip off and solar systems stop making money for the homeowner, often without them even realising.
Regional households were particularly disadvantaged because of limited grid capacity, he said.
Vinnies wants an existing ban on fees for household exports to be scrapped.
“It would enable possibilities and opportunities,” Mr Dufty said.
“Third parties could be involved, such as Tesla putting a communal battery at the end of the street, storing the energy and then giving it back to you at night time.
“Overall your energy bill would be lower and we’d all benefit because the battery could also offer other services to the market.”
The SAPN proposal follows extensive stakeholder discussion and the idea of a fee for selling power being made public by the Australian Energy Regulator earlier this month.
The State Government said it wanted to maximise benefits of solar and had allocated $10m to underwrite SAPN expediting upgrades.
The Government has backed calls by the Australian Energy Market Operator for solar to be remotely switched off to stop overloading.
“It’s critical the Commission consider the best ways for families to reduce their bills through solar and storage as we start reaching the limits of our distribution network, and that we protect people’s existing investments,”a State Government spokesman said.
SAPN said that since 2010, Australians have invested more than $10 billion in rooftop solar PV generation, and were continuing to spend more than $1 billion a year on solar.
Upgrades were essential to make the most of this investment and create greater rights for solar owners.
Its requested changes would only take effect from 2025 and only apply to new or altered solar systems.
A “modest” charge for exports “would be offset by reductions in consumption charges and potentially rewards for exporting energy at certain times – for example by discharging energy stored in batteries at times of peak demand”, Mr Vincent said.
The ACOSS submission was made in conjunction with the Total Environment Centre.
“ACOSS supports a rapid and fair transition to affordable clean energy, noting the impacts of the climate crisis disproportionately affects people on low income,” senior adviser Kellie Caught said.
“More Sun for Everyone (the ACOSS submission) rule change is the first step in fixing problems with the grid and rules, equitably. It requires networks to plan and invest to enable more export to the electricity grid and to allocate costs of doing so in a way that benefits everyone.”