{"id":62780,"date":"2022-06-16T07:07:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=62780"},"modified":"2022-06-16T07:07:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:37:04","slug":"queensland-sun-tax-mb2516","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/queensland-sun-tax-mb2516\/","title":{"rendered":"BS Called On Queensland “Sun Tax” Scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Queensland<\/p>\n

An article claiming a “sun tax” looms for solar power system owners in Queensland had the interwebs abuzz yesterday; well, a corner of it.<\/p>\n

The paywalled article in a News Corp publication claimed solar owners are being urged to install battery systems<\/a> ahead of this so-called sun tax that will see them charged for exporting surplus electricity when there is low demand for it. It certainly created a stir, with hundreds of comments by late yesterday afternoon. If you just read the headline and the first couple of paragraphs, a reader could be left with the impression this was just around the corner.<\/p>\n

It isn’t, but let’s rewind things a bit first.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s electricity grid was originally designed for one-way electricity flows – into premises, not out from them. As more households and businesses across the country install solar power systems<\/a>, electricity flowing back into the grid is increasing at a fairly rapid clip. System owners are (generally) paid for this electricity through feed-in tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in parts of some electricity networks there can be very high levels of\u00a0 solar energy goodness flowing back into the grid at certain times of the day, making maintaining grid stability more challenging.<\/p>\n

“Two-Way” Pricing Signals<\/h2>\n

One of the approaches to address the situation first proposed some years ago is the provision of two-way pricing signals to solar power system owners. These signals would encourage boosting self-consumption (which is the financially smart thing to do anyway) during times when there is risk of too much locally-generated solar electricity in the grid and not enough demand, but also to provide better rewards for exporting energy to the grid when it is needed.<\/p>\n

Some focused solely on the take rather than the give, and screams of “SUN TAX!” soon reverberated around the nation.<\/p>\n

Distributed Network Service Providers (DNSPs) in the National Electricity Market (NEM) had previously been banned from implementing surcharges on exports. Changes made by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) to National Electricity Rules and National Energy Retail Rules last year made them possible.<\/p>\n

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) was then given the job of developing draft Export Tariff Guidelines<\/a> for two-way pricing that would cover a bunch of issues, including protections for solar owners. Feedback on the draft guidelines closed in March this year, and the final Export Tariff Guidelines were published in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the important points in the explanatory statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n