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Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
261–270 of 427 posts
Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#262The fine print is interesting, theres a cap, fair use provisions and it requires a smart meter. Smart meters are still a bit contentious. Sadly probably wont be any good for selective crypto mining, alas.
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Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#263It’s very cool to see what happens where there are simply so many residential solar installs. Power price goes negative during peak sunshine hours so they just give it away. Solar installs benefitting everyone, even those who never got solar.
Yeah, it's been great to see the uptake of rooftop solar in Australia. One downside is that large scale solar projects aren't profitable any more. It kind of sucks for the investors that adopted green tech, that they aren't getting a good payoff. The good news is that co-located solar and battery projects are still profitable, but capital costs are higher and payback period of batteries aren't as good.
> It kind of sucks for the investors that adopted green tech
In the US, these people are known as speculators riding on government subsidy or grant, often shadily awarded - and anyone who couldn’t see consumer panel and consumer power-storage tech hooting its inflection point simply didn’t have a good grasp on the technology.
All important factors for investors.
Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
45% of us either rent or live in apartments.
Sure, a battery isn't available to everyone. But I is available for many. One would have to do the math, cost of battery versus 24kw free daily. But clearly for lots of people the math will work. A side effect of policies like this is effectively getting people to invest capital to time-shift elec usage. That's good policy. Reducing the peaks in consumption solves other problems.
> A side effect of policies like this is effectively getting people to invest capital to time-shift elec usage.
this means you don't have a functioning government/political system.
Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#265Free isn't free. Coinciding with this, suppliers put daily connection charges up.
As far as line-items on an invoice are concerned, power always seemed egregiously overpriced, and the infrastructure costs seemed wildly understated.
So, maybe this is a correction?
Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#266This article is misleading as it implies that Australian energy retailers must provide every household with 3 hours of free electricity. This is not the case. From 1 July 2026, Australian energy retailers with more than 1,000 customers must offer at least one energy plan which includes 3 hours of free electricity, capped at 24kWh per day, to residential customers in 3 states - NSW, SE Queensland and South Australia.…
> The downside of these solar sharer plans which include ‘free’ electricity is that they generally have higher daily supply charges and higher usage charges outside the ‘free’ window to recoup the costs of the ‘free’ electricity.
Ok, then why not take one plan with retailer A, and another plan with retailer B?
Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, capped at 24 kWh a day? Our household consumed 8 kWh per day over the past week (gas cooking, no airco). So with a home battery that sinks 10 kWh during those 3 hours you have minimal energy costs?
I pay about 38c per kilowatt plus $1.70 per day for the connection fee. So by that maths, you'd save 8×0.38=$3.04 per day. A 10kWh battery is in the ballpark of $4000. So it'll take about 4 years to break even. Then you'd just have to pay the connection fee, which seem to be increasing every year.
>which seem to be increasing every year.
In general inflation is increasing everywhere so not completely unexpected. Also solar/battery powered networks are shaped differently than ones only powered by prime movers. The edges become thicker as power becomes generated at the edge.
Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#268It’s very cool to see what happens where there are simply so many residential solar installs. Power price goes negative during peak sunshine hours so they just give it away. Solar installs benefitting everyone, even those who never got solar.
"Free" electricity is an indication that the economics are out of balance. If the power provider isn't getting paid for those 3 hours, it means they'll need to be paid more at other times. It also means the grid needs to spend more on storage and less on new solar. Its cool if you have the ability to load shift but in general it means costs go up.
Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I am able to charge cars at work Nice perk! Does you know who pays for the electricty? Is this "virtue signalling" by the company or landlord... or a subsidy from the local/state/national gov't? To be clear, I am not making any value judgement about providing free charging for EVs. It seems like good gov't policy to promote the adoption of EVs.
It costs $5-$10 for the electricity to charge a car using level 2 charging. It is a trivial "perk" for an employee that costs an order of magnitude more per hour of work.
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Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity
#270How’s that privatisation working out for Australian electric grids?