{"id":88484,"date":"2024-12-18T05:12:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T19:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=88484"},"modified":"2024-12-18T14:33:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T05:03:25","slug":"flexible-solar-exports-mb3075","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/flexible-solar-exports-mb3075\/","title":{"rendered":"Flexible Solar Exports In Australia: Where And When"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Solar<\/p>\n

South Australia led the way on flexible exports for rooftop solar power systems – so what’s happening elsewhere in Australia? Here’s the state of play.<\/p>\n

Distributed Network Service Providers (DNSPs<\/a>) have export limits for solar inverters<\/a> – often set at 5kW per phase. When the\u00a0 limit is reached, the inverter throttles output so it can’t export any higher, regardless of inverter capacity.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for these limits is to help reduce the risks associated with minimum grid demand events when too much solar energy is going into the grid and not enough is being consumed. Such situations can threaten network stability. Export limits also allow for more systems to be installed in a given area without expensive network upgrades.<\/p>\n

The 5kW export limit wasn’t really an issue when the average solar system size was 6.6kW<\/a>, which really wasn’t all that long ago. But systems today are bigger – 10kW<\/a> and even larger is common.<\/p>\n

There’s a better way – and that’s flexible exports done right.<\/p>\n

South Australia A Flexible Exports Pioneer<\/h2>\n

South Australia was the first Australian state to offer flexible exports – and by and large, it appears SA Power Networks (SAPN) has done it right.<\/p>\n

SAPN boffins developed software to forecast the network\u2019s hosting capacity on a 5-minute basis, 24 hours in advance to help manage solar power exports of up to 10kW\/phase per inverter. When the network can handle it and a system is capable, a full 10kW can be exported. When there’s too much congestion, a signal is sent to inverters to wind output back to as little as 1.5kW\/phase until the event passes.<\/p>\n

It’s not a case of the full 10kW export availability being very limited. SAPN modelling indicates the full 10kW is available around 98% of the time. SolarQuotes\u2019 General Manager Trevor wasted no time in making the switch to flexible exports<\/a> when it was available in his neck of the woods. You can also see details of a flexible exports curtailment event he experienced here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The SA Government mandated flexible export capability for all new solar installations from 1 July 2023.<\/p>\n

What About Solar Flexible Exports In Other States?<\/h2>\n

There’s more than one way to implement flexible exports – some more elegant than others. You’d think everyone else would have followed SAPN’s example given its success – but that hasn’t\/may not always be the case; and that’s a problem.<\/p>\n

Here’s the situation across the country; excluding limited trials in most cases. Much of the following information has been sourced from the Institute of Energy Economic and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).<\/p>\n

Queensland<\/h3>\n