Solargain and the Benalla Sustainable Future Group recently held a ‘Current state of solar’ event at Benalla’s Senior Citizens Centre.
Around 60 local people gathered to hear information on upcoming changes to residential solar tariffs, and other information on the technology.
Solargain North East Victoria director Brad Foletta spoke at the event on Thursday, October 10.
He discussed Victoria's emergency backstop mechanism for solar — what it is, why it’s needed and what its impacts will be for existing and new solar customers.
“From October 1, an emergency backstop applies to all new, upgrading and replacement rooftop solar systems less than or equal to 200kW,” he said.
“For these rooftop solar systems, this means the power you generate and feed into the grid can be remotely turned down or switched off in an emergency, as a last resort.
“If you are installing or upgrading your rooftop solar system after October 1, your installer must ensure it is emergency backstop enabled.”
That requires:
- A compatible inverter: This means the export and generation from the inverter is capable of being remotely managed.
- A reliable internet connection: This will ensure the distribution business can communicate with the inverter.
If you do not have rooftop solar, or you have an existing rooftop solar system installed before October 1, then these changes will not impact you.
Occasionally on mild, sunny days when there is low demand for electricity, more solar is exported to the grid than it can use.
This can lead to unstable electricity supply, local voltage issues and possible outages.
The emergency backstop will make sure that solar exports can be safely managed and enable more households to get the benefits and annual bill savings associated with solar.
It will help to avoid blackouts by enabling rooftop solar systems to be turned down or switched off when there is too much power in the grid.
Using the emergency backstop is a last resort. It will not affect the supply of electricity to your home.
Mr Foletta said the emergency backstop is not, and should not, be a barrier to entry into the solar market and it is estimated that it will result in about $7-$14 a year in export losses.
This is on a system that can save a household about $1500-$2000 a year.
Other topics covered were that the premium feed in tariff is also coming to an end on November 1.
Which means residential and business customers will no longer receive an additional 60c/kWh payment for solar energy exports to the grid.
Why is this change happening?
The solar premium feed-in tariff was a fixed-term scheme introduced in Victoria in 2009 under the Electricity Industry Amendment (Premium Solar Feed-in Tariff) Act to encourage the uptake of rooftop solar power.
The program closed to new applicants in late 2011 and will be ending altogether in November.
Mr Foletta spoke about how self-consumption of solar is the way forward. This is due to the default feed in tariff being 3.3c now.
“Even having a small battery to your system will help with offsetting increasing peak rates,” he said.
The night was concluded with a lengthy Q and A session from the audience, with questions ranging from what they can do with their existing system to effective and efficient ways to heat and cool their homes.
If you missed out on attending and have any questions regarding anything discussed on the night, please phone Solargain on 5721 8114.