Do you have solar panels?

[noirua]

Microinverters​

The heart of every Enphase system.​

https://enphase.com/installers/microinverters

 

[Smurf1976]

The retailer has to buy the power at a whole price, but will also have to pay transmission and distribution costs, and suffer losses.

Where the issue arises is that a large portion of distribution costs are fixed, they exist in order to build and keep the network in place, and someone has to pay those costs.

Reducing peak demand will lower distribution costs but reducing throughput at off-peak times, when a water heater would normally operate, makes no real difference.

That argument then opens up quite a minefield......

 

[Belli]

While don't have much sympathy for the energy distributors, I can get why they are nervous about the bottom line. I had a look at this houses' usage over the last last four days.

Drawn from grid over 24 hours.
0.589 kWh
0.775 kWh
0.480 kWh
0.578 kWh

Solar export over same period.
65.413 kWh
58.924 kWh
64.116 kWh
57.147 kWh

Of course there is the daily supply charge but I would incur that irrespective of having solar or not (although the rate would vary slightly.)

 

[rederob]

While don't have much sympathy for the energy distributors, I can get why they are nervous about the bottom line. I had a look at this houses' usage over the last last four days.

Drawn from grid over 24 hours.
0.589 kWh
0.775 kWh
0.480 kWh
0.578 kWh

Solar export over same period.
65.413 kWh
58.924 kWh
64.116 kWh
57.147 kWh

Of course there is the daily supply charge but I would incur that irrespective of having solar or not (although the rate would vary slightly.)

Your "export" figures are impressive, and while we could match them it would void our 20 year contract that limited us to a 5kWh inverter that capped our feed in rate. That said, we do get 52cents/kW FIT so are very happy.

From what I have gathered from this and other threads on electricity there has been a consistent failure of the federal government to work with States to harmonise renewables' rollouts and facilitate their technical integration with the grid. It's much easier to buyout and build Snowy2 and receive accolades than deal with the tougher issues confronting distribution and expect the private sector to fund them.

Back on topic, I need to rebuild the pool's gazebo after white ants took a liking to the oregon timber, and was looking at installing a roof laden with solar panels to power a proposed DC pool pump with battery backup. I worked out that payback would be around 3-4 years. Unfortunately the solar company I contacted said that if I did this it would void my solar FIT arrangements and I would be worse off. Even though the proposed gazebo solar was to be totally isolated (and not contribute to FIT) the contract I have does not allow for any other devices to be powered by a separate solar system. The good news is that I can now tell my better half we have to wait another 8 years to fix the gazebo. And there was I thinking I had to procrastinate on this task.

 

[Belli]

The only reason the export figure is impressive is because I have two separate 5 kWh inverters and so both are eligible for the FIT. One is with optimisers as it gets shade at various times whereas the other doesn't. It was less expensive doing it that way rather than a 10 kWH system with micro-inverters. Single-phase and not three-phase systems.

You may know about this already but I'll post the link nevertheless. Only 10 years ago but not warmly embraced by industry players. I am surprised by that.

Home | iGrid - CSIRO Intelligent Grid Cluster

The Intelligent Grid Cluster is a major collaborative research venture between the CSIRO and the university sector under the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship. It explores the economic, environmental and social impacts and benefits of the large-scale deployment of intelligent grid technologies...

igrid.net.au

Excellent attitude there to always put off maintenance issues until technical difficulties arise which prevent you from doing them anyway.

 

[Belli]

It's getting to the stage where the energy provide is about to write to me begging I use more power from the grid.

From Grid

26 December: 0.543 kWh
27 December: 0.729 kWh
28 December: 0.808 kWh
29 December: 0.637 kWh
30 December: 0.203 kWh
31 December: 0.244 kWh
1 January: 0.002 kWh

Solar:

26 December: 45.456 kWh
27 December: 32.219 kWh
28 December: 72.430 kWh
29 December: 80.731 kWh
30 December: 77.519 kWh
31 December: 72.154 kWh
1 January: 77.710 kWh

The oddest thing is they appear to have entered into an agreement with the financial institution I use to provide a 10% rebate on all utility (electricity/water) payments I make from the account. Not too sure what I what I will buy with the $0.48 per fortnight I get back.

PS: For 1 January the combined solar production of both systems was 85.869 kWh so solar consumption and efficiency issues of the system accounted for 13.715 kWh. Also have solar hot water as well (installed when the then hot water system blew up) which in the past cost approximately $210 per year.