The demand and power production patterns on Australia’s main grid have been gradually reshaped in recent years with the growth of wind, solar and battery storage – but the most dramatic impact has come in recent months thanks to the boom in home batteries and newly-offered hours of free power.
The most recent addition to the policy suite is the introduction of the Solar Sharer offer, which requires energy retailers top offer tariffs that include three hours of free electricity between 11am and 2 pm in most states.
This offer is usually offset by higher evening charges and increased network costs, but it seems many households, almost exclusively those armed with sizeable home batteries they have bought through the federal government rebate, are seizing the opportunity.
The Australian Energy Market Operator, in its latest Quarterly Energy Dynamics report shows the impact that is already having on the grid, resulting in a sudden boost in grid demand in the middle of the day, as its CEO Daniel Westerman flagged last week.
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The Solar Sharer offer was only introduced from July 1 in most states and, according to AEMO, the five-minute total demand across the NEM (National Electricity Market) increased by 360 MW between 1100 hrs and 1105 hrs.
Curiously, the largest increases recorded in Victoria (+151 MW) – which only formally introduced the offer from October 1 (but some retailers were already making it available to consumers before then) – followed by NSW (+114 MW) and Queensland (+111 MW).
As the graph above shows, the higher midday demand is offset by lower evening demand peaks, as the households store that free power for later in the day.
It’s not the only significant shift driven by the arrival of home batteries – 14,000 megawatt hours since the launch of the scheme in July 1 last year, and 1,652 MWh in the last quarter alone.
AEMO says there is now a marked difference in grid consumption between those houses with solar and batteries, and those with just solar.
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“On average, households with PV and battery systems shifted to net exports later in the morning than PV-only households and exported less energy, as batteries charged before any surplus PV was exported to the grid,” it notes.
“During the evening peak (1600 hrs to 2100 hrs), battery-equipped households remained net exporters for longer and recorded lower net imports than PV-only households.
“Across the NEM, average evening peak net import for households with PV and battery were 0.7 kW lower per household, equivalent to a 74% reduction relative to PV-only households.”
This, of course, has impacts to other generation. Along with big batteries, it means more demand and higher prices in the middle of the day to support solar, but lower prices in the evening peaks, which has an impact on both peaking plants and batteries, and the coal generators that used to count on chasing in on price spikes at those times.
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Giles Parkinson
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor-in-chief of Renew Economy, and founder and editor of its EV-focused sister site The Driven. He is the co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast. Giles has been a journalist for more than 40 years and is a former deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review. You can find him on LinkedIn and on Twitter.
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