The head of the energy market rule maker acknowledged that integrating rapidly growing consumer energy resources, such as rooftop solar and household batteries, into the power grid is a huge opportunity that has not been grasped quickly enough.

Australian Energy Market Commission chairwoman Anna Collyer said Australia’s 3.5 million household solar systems provided an equivalent amount of generation capacity into the national energy market as four Snowy Hydros. And with better management, such consumers could be the “heroes on the road to net zero”.