{"id":38390,"date":"2020-04-06T13:27:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T02:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=38390"},"modified":"2020-04-25T11:12:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T00:42:26","slug":"sa-solar-sponge-tariff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/","title":{"rendered":"Will SA&#8217;s &#8220;Solar Sponge&#8221; Tariff Make &#8216;Batteries Without Solar&#8217; Worthwhile?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_38740\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38740\" class=\"wp-image-38740 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/solar-sponge.jpg\" alt=\"Solar sponge tariff - South Australia\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/solar-sponge.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/solar-sponge-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/solar-sponge-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/solar-sponge-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-38740\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A battery and a sponge. See what I did there?<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Update 9th April 2020:\u00a0 <\/strong>South Australia Power Networks has informed us the Solar Sponge tariff is available now for people with smart meters, but very few electricity retailers are offering it.<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-1' id='enref-38390-1' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 It was to become standard on the 1st of July, but this may be delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In October 2019 South Australia Power Networks (SAPN) announced they would introduce a new &#8220;Solar Sponge&#8221; tariff promising electricity in the middle of the day at one quarter their usual rate.\u00a0 As a result, some people have claimed this will let a battery pay for itself, even if the home doesn&#8217;t have solar panels. \u00a0Are they nuts? Not completely.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to South Australia&#8217;s hefty home battery subsidy and the low advertised cost of some battery systems, it&#8217;s possible for a battery charged at the solar sponge tariff to pay for itself without solar under very specific circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>But if people want the full SA subsidy they&#8217;ll have to hurry as it gets cut by one-third after the 14th of this month, with the maximum rebate dropping from $6,000 to $4,000.<\/p>\n<p>And be aware that relying on the solar sponge tariff to make a battery-sans-solar pay will be a gamble. The Solar Sponge tariff may not be introduced for years.<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-2' id='enref-38390-2' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<h2>SAPN Solar Sponge<\/h2>\n<p>The Adelaide Advertiser wrote about SAPN&#8217;s Solar Sponge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adelaidenow.com.au\/news\/south-australia\/australian-energy-regulator-tells-sa-power-networks-to-cut-power-bills\/news-story\/9cbf6c539ca3ede81d51fc97cce53352\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a> and Michael mentioned it on our blog <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/aer-sapn-electricity-mb1244\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 When introduced, the tariff will work in the following way:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Solar Sponge period from 10am &#8212; 3pm:\u00a0 25% of standard tariff<\/li>\n<li>Peak periods from 6am-10am and 3pm-1am:\u00a0 125% of standard tariff<\/li>\n<li>Off-peak period from 1am-6am:\u00a0 50% of standard tariff<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This has caused some people to think:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Wow!\u00a0 I only have to pay one quarter of the normal amount for electricity in the middle of the day?\u00a0 I can store that in a battery that has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-subsidy-reduction-mb1439\/\">heavily subsidised<\/a> by South Australian tax payers and save heaps on my electricity bill!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Unfortunately, they&#8217;ve made the mistake of thinking they&#8217;ll only be paying 25% of the retail rate for electricity when what they&#8217;ll actually be paying is 25% of SAPN&#8217;s standard tariff which makes up only around 31% of their electricity bills.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38737\" style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38737\" class=\"wp-image-38737 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/bill-elements.png\" alt=\"South Australia retail electricity cost breakdown\" width=\"680\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/bill-elements.png 680w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/bill-elements-300x221.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-38737\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How each kWh of electricity is charged for. Image credit: SAPN<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This means &#8212; all else equal &#8212; the reduction in the cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour during the solar sponge period will be less than one-third what they are expecting.\u00a0 Fortunately for battery aficionados, this is still enough to improve their return.<\/p>\n<h2>Smart Meter Required<\/h2>\n<p>To use a Solar Sponge tariff requires a smart meter.\u00a0 At the moment only around 13% of South Australian homes have one, but if you get a new solar power system your old meter will be changed over.\u00a0 In 5 years time the number of homes with smart meters may be around 50%, although if the current rate they&#8217;re being replaced is maintained it will only be around one-third by then.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Sponge Controlled Load &#8212; Not Suitable For Batteries<\/h2>\n<p>The Solar Sponge tariff arrival date has not been announced and its introduction may depend on smart meter uptake.\u00a0 But there is a Solar Sponge controlled load currently available, provided you can find a retail plan that offers it.\u00a0 It used to be called &#8220;Afternoon Boost&#8221; which was a dumb name for something that now starts at 10:00am in the morning.\u00a0 You are not allowed to charge home batteries with it, but you may find it useful for hot water systems and some other loads.\u00a0 It starts at a random time<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-3' id='enref-38390-3' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>3<\/a><\/sup> between 10am and 11am and ends at 3pm.<\/p>\n<h2>SAPN Tariff Rates<\/h2>\n<p>As the state&#8217;s Distributed Network Service Provider (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/grid-connection\/\">DNSP<\/a>), SAPN is responsible for the local distribution of electricity to homes and businesses, and since we don&#8217;t have enough chickens to pay them in barter, they get money in return.\u00a0 According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sapowernetworks.com.au\/public\/download.jsp?id=9506\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this document<\/a> SAPN&#8217;s current residential tariffs are:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-38658 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/sapntariffs.png\" alt=\"SAPN electricity tariff rates\" width=\"1261\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/sapntariffs.png 1261w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/sapntariffs-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/sapntariffs-1024x256.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/sapntariffs-768x192.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1261px) 100vw, 1261px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This means their current standard rate is a daily supply charge of 44.2 cents and 14.24 cents per kilowatt-hour of grid electricity used.\u00a0 After adding GST it becomes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a048.6 cents daily supply charge<\/li>\n<li>15.66 cents per kilowatt-hour<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So for the Solar Sponge tariff, including GST, this would become:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Daily supply charge:\u00a0 48.6 cents<\/p>\n<p>Solar Sponge period from 10am-3pm:\u00a0 3.92 cents<br \/>\nPeak periods from 6am-10am and 3pm-1am:\u00a0 19.58 cents<br \/>\nOff-peak period from 1am-6am:\u00a0 7.83 cents<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This means electricity in the Solar Sponge period is 11.74 cents cheaper than the standard SAPN rate and 15.66 cents cheaper than during peak periods.<\/p>\n<h2>Additional Electricity Bill Charges<\/h2>\n<p>On top of the SAPN tariff, electricity bills are also loaded up with the cost of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wholesale electricity<\/li>\n<li>Long distance transmission<\/li>\n<li>Metering<\/li>\n<li>Retailing<\/li>\n<li>Environmental charges<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-4' id='enref-38390-4' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>4<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These additional charges makes your per-kWh charge more than three times the SAPN tariff.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Sponge + Standard Tariff Retail Plan<\/h2>\n<p>If I use the SolarQuotes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/energy\/\">retail electricity plan comparison tool<\/a> it tells me the cheapest standard tariff plan available in South Australia from any of the big 3 retailers &#8212; Origin, AGL, &amp; Energy Australia &#8212; is from Origin and has a 90.81 cent daily supply charge and a 32.23 cent per kilowatt-hour charge.\u00a0 This won&#8217;t be the best plan if you have solar panels because of its relatively low solar feed-in tariff, but I&#8217;ll use it to show the addition of the Solar Sponge can help make a home battery profitable.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll use a current electricity plan to keep things simple, but keep in prices can change.\u00a0 Hopefully <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/aemc-report-electricity-prices\/\">downwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If I apply the Solar Sponge tariff directly to this plan it goes from a straight 32.23 cents per kilowatt-hour to:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Solar Sponge period from 10am &#8212; 3pm:\u00a0 20.49 cents<br \/>\nPeak periods from 6am-10am and 3pm-1am:\u00a0 36.15 cents<br \/>\nOff-peak period from 1am-6am:\u00a0 24.4 cents<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This means grid electricity during the Solar Sponge period will be 15.66 cents cheaper than in peak periods.\u00a0 But if applied to a time-of-use tariff the difference between sponge and peak periods can be much greater.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Sponge + Time-Of-Use Retail Plan<\/h2>\n<p>Time-of-use tariffs are a new thing for South Australia and they are still very rare.\u00a0 I could only find one and it&#8217;s from Globird Energy.\u00a0 They call it &#8220;Residential DMO Flex Rate SAPN&#8221; and it has the following charges:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Daily supply charge:\u00a0 $1.65 &#8211; OUCH!<\/li>\n<li>Shoulder 10am-3pm:\u00a0 28.6 cents<\/li>\n<li>Peak periods from 6am-10am and 3pm-1am:\u00a0 39.6 cents<\/li>\n<li>Off-peak period from:\u00a0 28.6 cents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>At the moment the Solar Sponge period is called &#8220;shoulder&#8221; and has the same charge as the off-peak period.\u00a0 If the SAPN Solar Sponge tariff is applied the kilowatt-hour charges become:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Solar Sponge period from 10am-3pm:\u00a0 16.9 cents<\/li>\n<li>Peak periods from 6am-10am and 3pm-1am:\u00a0 55.26 cents &#8211; OUCH!<\/li>\n<li>Off-peak period from 1am-6am:\u00a0 20.77 cents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This makes the grid electricity during the Solar Sponge period 38.4 cents cheaper than during the peak period.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a big difference.<\/p>\n<p>Presumably, South Australia will have a wider choice of time-of-use tariffs in the future.\u00a0 Hopefully, we&#8217;ll get some with less painful daily charges.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Sponge + Battery &amp; No Solar<\/h2>\n<p>If a household has an electricity plan identical to my Solar Sponge standard tariff example above and charge their battery during the solar sponge period and discharge it during the peak period they would save 15.66 cents per kilowatt-hour, but only if they had a magical battery with 100% efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, a good round trip efficiency for a battery system is around 88%.\u00a0 After taking this into account it would cost them 23.28 cents to store one kilowatt-hour of electricity, so using it during a peak period would only save them 12.87 cents.<\/p>\n<p>If it&#8217;s assumed the household:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Uses an average of 10 kilowatt-hours of stored battery energy per day.<\/li>\n<li>Uses it all in place of grid electricity during peak periods.<\/li>\n<li>Has a battery warranty of 10 years.<\/li>\n<li>Electricity prices remain constant in real terms.<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-5' id='enref-38390-5' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>5<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then the battery could save them $4,698 within its warranty period.\u00a0 If it is assumed the battery will last for 2 years beyond its warranty then it will save $5,637.\u00a0 But note these savings are dependent on discharging an average of 10 kilowatt-hours a day during a peak period.\u00a0 Very few households have a high enough electricity consumption for this to be a reasonable assumption.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to South Australia&#8217;s battery subsidy and some interesting pricing decisions, I have seen battery systems with an installed price which makes their simple payback period<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-6' id='enref-38390-6' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>6<\/a><\/sup> less than either of these amounts.\u00a0 This includes installation,<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-7' id='enref-38390-7' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>7<\/a><\/sup> a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/hybrid-inverter-comparison\/\">hybrid inverter<\/a>,<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-8' id='enref-38390-8' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>8<\/a><\/sup> and the South Australian home battery subsidy.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not recommending these low cost batteries.\u00a0 I&#8217;m also not anti-recommending them either.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t have enough information about them to give advice one way or the other.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll just say what I normally would, which is be careful, do your research, check installer online reviews &#8212; if you look at our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/installers\/\">reviews<\/a>, check their &#8220;Ausranking&#8221; to see how they compare to other installers &#8212; make sure you haven&#8217;t missed any important points, and consider potential downsides.<\/p>\n<p>One potential downside is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-test-7th-report\/\">battery system breakdowns<\/a> driving your provider bust and prompting the manufacturer to pull out of the country, leaving you without warranty support.\u00a0 But that could happen with any volatile new technology.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Sponge + Time-Of-Use Tariff<\/h2>\n<p>As my Solar Sponge <strong>time-of-use<\/strong> example allows grid electricity to be bought in the middle of the day for 38.4 cents cheaper than during peak times, it appears capable of providing almost two and a half times the savings my Solar Sponge <strong>standard tariff<\/strong> example does.\u00a0 But in real life the savings often don&#8217;t work out that way.<\/p>\n<p>This is because any household that uses enough energy during peak periods to regularly drain its energy storage is also going to often draw a significant amount of energy from the grid during peak periods.\u00a0 Normal households have a lot of variation in energy consumption.\u00a0 Because peak electricity prices are very high on the Solar Sponge time-of-use tariff, this has the potential to reduce the benefit if lower charges at other times aren&#8217;t enough to compensate.<\/p>\n<p>Also, if the electricity bill without a battery would be less on a standard tariff than a time-of-use tariff, that is the correct comparison to use when determining savings.\u00a0 So while it can definitely make sense to have a time-of-use tariff after getting a battery, the return may not be as high as you think if you only compare it to what your electricity bill would be on the same tariff.<\/p>\n<p>Despite often not being as good as it seems, there is still plenty of potential for time-of-use tariffs to improve the return from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">home batteries<\/a>.\u00a0 But just how much benefit &#8212; and in some cases there may be none &#8212; will depend on the household&#8217;s electricity consumption patterns.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Sponge + Solar &amp; Battery<\/h2>\n<p>If a home battery can pay for itself without solar panels, then &#8212; most of the time &#8212; the return will be even better with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/solar101.html\">solar<\/a>.\u00a0 This is because it&#8217;s usually cheaper to charge the battery with solar power than grid electricity.\u00a0 The exception to this would be if the solar feed-in tariff was greater than the cost of charging the battery.\u00a0 This is possible with current feed-in tariffs and the Solar Sponge time-of-use retail plan example.<\/p>\n<p>Another advantage is that if surplus solar output is not enough to charge the battery it can be topped up with low cost sponge period electricity.\u00a0 Because &#8212; as it currently stands &#8212; the SAPN Solar Sponge will be constant through the year and not change for winter or cloudy days, this can be very useful for homes with batteries but without a large enough solar system to regularly fully charge them.<\/p>\n<h2>VPPs Can Improve Battery Payback<\/h2>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/vpp-comparison\/\">range of Virtual Power Plants<\/a> (VPPs) are being trialed and also have the potential to greatly improve battery payback.\u00a0 At the moment it&#8217;s impossible to say how much they will help as no historical data is available yet, but unless you choose very unwisely &#8212; and the VPP is downright <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-ixmLYKogtg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">evil<\/a> &#8212; they shouldn&#8217;t hurt payback.\u00a0 So battery systems are looking a lot more economically promising than they were.<\/p>\n<h2>April 15th Subsidy Deadline<\/h2>\n<p>The South Australian Battery Subsidy will be reduced from a maximum of $6,000 to a maximum of $4,000 on the 15th of this month.\u00a0 This will add $2,000 to the cost of system with a nominal capacity<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-9' id='enref-38390-9' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>9<\/a><\/sup> of 10 kilowatt-hours or more.\u00a0 While I don&#8217;t recommend rushing into these things, you can&#8217;t really dawdle either if you want to get the maximum amount of subsidy.\u00a0 You only have to sign up for a battery system from an approved provider before the 15th.\u00a0 It doesn&#8217;t have to be installed by then.\u00a0 And it probably won&#8217;t be installed for a long time, since I imagine they&#8217;ll have a lot of orders to get through.<\/p>\n<h2>Batteries Can Potentially Pay<\/h2>\n<p>At the moment it looks like batteries will pay for themselves for more South Australian households than ever before.\u00a0 But in just over a week, that number will be greatly diminished as the state&#8217;s home battery subsidy is cut.\u00a0 If you want to rush into signing up for a battery before the 15th, don&#8217;t let me stop you.\u00a0 All I ask is you don&#8217;t blame me if it all goes pear-shaped.<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/#en-38390-10' id='enref-38390-10' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(38390)'>10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>But if you don&#8217;t rush ahead, my guess &#8212; and it is only an educated guess &#8212; is we&#8217;ll see some price reductions among the better known home battery brands after the subsidy is reduced.\u00a0 This is because pretty much every South Australian early adopter will have bought a battery by the 15th and manufacturers will have to start competing on price rather than coasting by on coolness.\u00a0 But we may have to give them a couple of months so they can pretend it wasn&#8217;t because of the subsidy cut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update 9th April 2020:\u00a0 South Australia Power Networks has informed us the Solar Sponge tariff is available now for people with smart meters, but very few electricity retailers are offering it.1\u00a0 It was to become standard on the 1st of July, but this may be delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In October 2019 South [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battery-storage","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Will SA&#039;s &quot;Solar Sponge&quot; Tariff Make Batteries Without Solar Worthwhile?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Will cheaper grid electricity during peak solar hours in SA make it profitable to add a batteries to homes without solar panels? Or is that idea nuts?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-sponge-tariff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will SA&#039;s &quot;Solar Sponge&quot; Tariff Make &#039;Batteries Without Solar&#039; Worthwhile?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Will cheaper grid electricity during peak solar hours in SA make it profitable to add a batteries to homes without solar panels? 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South Australia's Distributed Network Service Provider (DNSP) SA Power Networks (SAPN) had requested it be permitted to recoup $4,214.5 million from South Australian electricity customers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SA Power Networks - SAPN","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/sapn-aer-electricity.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/sapn-aer-electricity.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/sapn-aer-electricity.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/sapn-aer-electricity.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/sapn-aer-electricity.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":85626,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/tou-solar-shading-mb2976\/","url_meta":{"origin":38390,"position":2},"title":"Time-Of-Use Tariffs And Home Battery Tackle Shading Challenge","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"August 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This homeowner in SA has made good use of Time-of-Use (ToU) electricity tariffs and a home battery to minimise the financial impact from significant shading of his solar power system during winter. There has been grumbling about Time-of-Use electricity tariffs; mainly around some electricity retailers behaving badly after a smart\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shaded solar power system","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/tou-solar-shading.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/tou-solar-shading.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/tou-solar-shading.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/tou-solar-shading.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/tou-solar-shading.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54724,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-without-solar\/","url_meta":{"origin":38390,"position":3},"title":"Buying A Battery Without Solar Is No Longer A Crazy Idea","author":"Ronald Brakels","date":"November 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"South Australia has a lot of solar.\u00a0 Relative to total generation it's well ahead of any other state.\u00a0 All this solar power reduces daytime wholesale electricity prices.\u00a0 This is a good thing.\u00a0 Not only is solar energy clean, it cuts costs for homes and businesses. In addition to low daytime\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Battery Storage&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Battery Storage","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/battery-storage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Is a home battery without solar panels worth it?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/battery-no-solar2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/battery-no-solar2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/battery-no-solar2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/battery-no-solar2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/battery-no-solar2.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":71693,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/arena-hot-water-solar-mb2841\/","url_meta":{"origin":38390,"position":4},"title":"ARENA Gets Into Hot Water","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"February 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is stumping up funds for a trial involving controlling hot water loads to take advantage of cheap surplus solar energy. Heating water is an energy-intensive exercise. Around a quarter of electricity consumed by Australian households with a standard electric hot water system goes towards\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Electric hot water system Demand Flexibility Trial","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/hot-water-trial.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/hot-water-trial.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/hot-water-trial.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/hot-water-trial.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/hot-water-trial.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":92583,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-solar-export-tariffs-mb3203\/","url_meta":{"origin":38390,"position":5},"title":"Solar Export Tariff For South Australia Soon","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"June 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"South Australia's electricity distributor SA Power Networks (SAPN) has announced it will be introducing an export tariff \u2014sometimes incorrectly referred to as a 'sun tax' \u2014 from July 1 this year. Here's why, how it will work and how much it will cost. SAPN has been grappling with managing increased\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Solar exports in South Australia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sa-export-tariffs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sa-export-tariffs.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sa-export-tariffs.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sa-export-tariffs.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sa-export-tariffs.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38390"}],"version-history":[{"count":58,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39201,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38390\/revisions\/39201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}