The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) said on Thursday its draft determination on proposed National Electricity Rule (NER) changes impacting rooftop solar and other distributed energy resources will be delayed.
First, some background. Back in July, the AEMC called for submissions on proposed rule change requests it had received following AEMC’s calls for reform in 2019; relating to:
- Pricing and incentive arrangements for distributed energy resources (DER), which include and are primarily solar power systems, but also solar batteries, electric vehicles and energy management systems.
- Planning and access to the grid for DER.
- Allowing distribution network service providers (DNSPs) to charge for exports to the network.
It won’t come as any surprise the latter is the most controversial. Charging solar owners for exporting their surplus electricity to the grid isn’t allowed under the NER currently. One of the proponents for changing this, SA Power Networks (SAPN), believes it will result in new pricing models that will charge solar owners for some behaviours and reward them for others. However, SAPN envisages excluding existing owners of rooftop systems from this – so that’s worth keeping in mind if you’re considering installing solar panels.
The other proponent, St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria, says solar system owners should be given an option of either paying to export, or be subject to constraints on how much they can export when the grid is congested.
“Unfair, Inconsistent, Inequitable”
In its submission concerning the proposed changes, The Australia Institute (TAI) said charges for exports would be unfair unless solar owners were also being paid fair revenue (i.e. feed-in tariffs) for the benefits their systems provide. Among the many benefits:
- Solar putting downwards pressure on wholesale electricity prices
- Pushing out fossil fuel based generation – health, environmental and associated financial benefits.
One of the other arguments TAI made is it would be unfair to charge solar households when other generators are not charged for accessing the network. However, a related AEMC FAQ points out large generators pay larger up-front connection fees that are based on their capacity and work that needs to be done to the network to cater to them.
Draft Determination Deferred
The AEMC was to have published its draft determination on all three proposed rule changes this month, but that has now been delayed until March 25 next year. It says the extension will enable the AEMC to continue working with stakeholders on how National Electricity Rules in relation to distributed energy resources can be updated in a way that benefits all customers.
“It is very important to get this right and planning ahead will avoid technical problems, keep costs down and speed up the decarbonisation of the energy sector,” said AEMC chief executive Benn Barr.
Further information on each of the rule change requests can be found here:
- TEC/ACOSS (network planning and access)
- St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria (allowing solar export charges)
- SA Power Networks (allowing solar export charges, pricing and incentives)
All three were consolidated last Thursday – further information: Access, pricing and incentive arrangements for distributed energy resources.
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Charging for solar exports sure will do wonders for battery sales.
O.K. Time to develop a self regulating device that will consume all the unrequired extra energy from my solar installation. Just ‘waste’ all the free renewable energy rather than have it available for others to consume more cost effectively than fossil based energy.
BAH HUMBUG !!!
If it gets closer to being implemented we could consider an Earth Hour type activity to protest. We all test (- turn off) our solar installations on a high peak demand day around midday for an hour.
Yep, I would also turn on my aircon and oven at the same time. We can send turbines out of sync for a while.
From the Powerclub website
https://www.powerclub.com.au/blog/electricity-bills
All retailers incur and pass on the same fixed Network Fees. These fees cover the cost of building and maintaining the poles and wires that deliver electricity to your home. Network fees include:
A Daily Charge – for being connected to the energy network. Each Network charges different daily rates, and it varies significantly from one Network to another. The charges range from 6c to 79c per day, which can become substantial over a year.
Metering Charges – cover the cost of reading and maintaining your electricity meter. Metering rates vary from one Network to another with charges ranging between 4c to 21c per day.
Transmission and Distribution Costs – are the costs of transporting energy to your house. The cost of moving energy around can vary from 6c to 14c per kWh depending on the Network and where you live. Major cities generally have the lowest price due to population density while less populated regional areas attract higher prices because the energy has further to travel.
Distribution Loss Factors (DLF) – A small amount of energy is lost as it travels from the generation source to your home. The cost varies a lot depending on how far it must travel but generally, between 5% – 10% is lost, which adds about 0.2c to 0.8c per kWh.
Marginal Loss Factors (MLF) – are smaller losses like those in a suburb or smaller area and are typically less than 1%. Sometimes if the suburb is near a substantial generation source, the MLF can be a negative number. In this case, the Network deducts the overall losses from the more significant Distribution Loss Factors.
Schemes
All retailers pay similar mandatory schemes, which may vary State by State. Schemes include:
Federal Charges – These fees are minimal at around four-hundredths of a cent per kWh, so they have little effect on your electricity bills.
National Renewable Schemes -These schemes are for green energy projects such as large wind and solar farms. They also support small-scale renewable energy by subsidising solar panel installations to encourage more homeowners to invest in solar energy. The national renewable scheme costs about 1.7c per kWh.
Jurisdictional Efficiency Schemes – These cover state-based programs and vary between 0.1c to 0.4c per kWh. These schemes encourage households to become more energy efficient by fitting LED lighting and installing energy-efficient heating, cooling, and appliances.
(Personally I think the Daily and Transmission and Distribution charges appear to be a double dip to me.)
So when the electrons are pumped out of my solar installation, round the corner into my neighbours home to keep his aircon and beer fridge ticking over in summer, I would assume they are being charged the normal retail rate with all the above costs/charges and taxes included?
The only difference I can see is the difference between wholesale and FIT. The difference between my 10.2c FIT and the average wholesale price still leaves a lot of extra coin to be distributed to offset the above charges.
But they still want more??
Sure, charge solar owners to export…as long as we then get full market price during market disturbances.
In reality, this kind of tax would push many into going off grid, leaving DNSPs with stranded assets and a falling revenue base.
The only obvious answer to all this is that Global Warming and the Environment are no longer an issue after 40 years of being headline News, it seems that we can burn as much coal as we want and there is no need for Solar anymore. The HUGE $ the Government has spent on Solar credits will have now be spent again on more Coal or Nuclear power stations as most people with Solar including me will simply get batteries and go Stand Alone!!!!! The grid as it is now could not survive without us Solar suppliers once we get over this Covid business and everything gets plugged back in again, it will be really good to see that we are over this Global Warming and our environment is back to being healthy once again, huge congratulations to our Government are in order to have achieved this!!!!!!!!!
Martin Holden,
You state: “…it will be really good to see that we are over this Global Warming and our environment is back to being healthy once again…”
The climate science says otherwise.
Climate history previews our hot future.
The last time planet Earth’s atmosphere was so rich in CO2 (and hotter) was millions of years ago, before modern humans existed.
Earth’s climate will inevitably get hotter and more hostile for humanity and human civilisation due to GHGs already released into the atmosphere.
How much hotter and more hostile is dependent on how much more human-induced GHG emissions are put into the atmosphere from now on.
See my comment: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/biden-climate-renewable-energy-mb1753/#comment-865667
The animation “Carbon Dioxide Pumphandle 2019” shown below provides the history of Earth’s atmospheric CO2, from 800,000 years ago until January 2019. The animation starts at the beginning of 1979 showing actual CO2 measurements at multiple measuring points around the globe, progressing to January 2019, then adding in the Keeling direct CO2 measurement data back to 1958, then the ice core data back to 800k BCE.
They wanted us to go solar to save them buying new generators….
Now they stuffed up…they dont want us to go solar…..
THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING….
ALL OF US SHOULD LOOK TO BATTERIES..
This seems to be a protection measures for the Energy Companies as power prices fall and energy bills shrink. These Energy Company are becoming less profitable. Its all about money. I use to be about the enviroment , co2 emissions and global warming . Time to vote out the governments and vote Green.