Australia funds retailer solar management trial

The project is led by SA Power Networks along with Retailers Simply Energy and AGL.

The Australian government has granted over $681,000 (A$1.02m) to SA Power Networks and Partners for the development and trial of the capacity for retailer solar management offers to work with networks' flexible connection offers.

In a statement, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) said Retailers Simply Energy and AGL Energy are working with SA Power Networks for the $1.4m (A$2.1m) project to address the unresponsive systems of rooftop solar in South Australia to market signals.

They aim to provide offers that reward customers to enable their solar to be in line with the wholesale energy market pricing.

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The project will initially help to inform design on the integration between new customer offers and SA Power Networks’ Flexible Export connections for rooftop solar which will be launched as a standard service offering from July 2023.

“Combining flexible export connections with innovative retail market offers aims to maximise the opportunity for customers to participate in the market while ensuring power flows don’t exceed the technical limits of the network,” ARENA said, adding that it could potentially be used to support other behind-the-meter equipment like batteries and electric vehicles.

This could be adopted in other states in the National Electricity Market if successful, ARENA said.

$1 = A$1.50