War against solar: pricing regulator favours gross tariffs

The Queensland pricing regulator says it favours the introduction of a gross feed in tariff in the state, in a move that the solar industry say would be devastating for the rooftop solar PV market.

The Queensland Competition Authority’s recommendation is included in its issues paper on a “fair and reasonable tariff for solar”. It says in the paper: “The Authority considers there is an argument to prefer a gross metering arrangement over a net arrangement, but is open to stakeholder views on this matter.”

The likely introduction of a gross feed in tariff was first revealed by RenewEconomy in July, in our piece on “How big utilities propose to kill solar PV.” It was among a number of measures canvassed by retailers and network operators to protect their revenue sources, which is threatened by the proliferation of solar PV. Many of the other proposed measures, such as network restrictions, the introduction of standing charges, and proposed changes to the renewable energy target, have also provide right.

Gross tariffs were popular in some states at the height of inflated feed-in tariffs, because householders received a premium price for every kW of solar they produced. Now those tariffs have been cut to well below retail electricity prices, net metering, which only pays for excess energy fed back into the grid, allows households to use solar PV as a hedge against those rising electricity prices, using the electricity they produce to reduce their requirements from the grid.

However, while this offers significant savings to householders, this cuts the retailers and the network operators out of the game, and net metering would become even more attractive under the time-of-use tariffs proposed by the energy industry. But that would further undermine the revenue of the retailes and network operators. The QCA said it feared net metering allows solar households to avoid a disproportionate amount of network costs by minimising their reliance on grid-sourced electricity.

The solar industry says the introduction of gross tariffs – possibly at the rate of 8-12c/kWh – would be devastating for the industry, and represented a greater threat than even the dilution of the renewable energy target.

They argue it effectively reduces competition in the industry, and potentially removes one of the key solutions to the overloading of grids. Numerous independent studies have underlined the important role that solar PV could help in meeting peak demand, but this is rarely acknowledged by the utilities, who are more concerned about protecting revenues by growing their assets. The move comes just months after the Queensland Government slashed its net feed in tariff. Queensland had been the fastest growing state for solar PV, accounting for 40 per cent of national installations by some count.

The introduction of gross tariffs would also likely kill off the emerging commercial-scale solar PV market in Australia. Commercial scale solar is considered one of the most effective options for reducing peak demand because the output from the rooftop or ground mounted panels corresponds with usage by commercial users.

However, Australian solar companies have also expressed fears that the suspension of grants under the Federal government’s $800 million Clean Technology Investment Program for manufacturing groups could threaten many projects, just as the industry was getting started.

The head of one NSW company, who requested anonymity, said he had 15 proposals on the drawing board, ranging in size from 30kW systems to up to 1MW for customers including manufacturers, processors, retailers, and vineyards.

He said if the funding was withdrawn, only a couple of smaller projects were likely to go ahead. That’s because larger commercial customers had the buying power to negotiate lower electricity prices – of around 16c-18c/kWh (instead of 30ckW/h or more) from the utilities which were effectively cross subsidized by other users. RenewEconomy highlighted the other issues surrounding commercial solar in this piece earlier this week, Why new solar tariffs coud drive a man to diesel”

The companies complain of a lack of information around the CTIP, with most only hearing about the “pause” in grants via the media. Questions to Climate Change Minister Greg Combet’s office were met with a reference to comments made in The senate this week from assistant minister Kate Lundy, who said there would be a “brief pause” while the government goes through a process of “examining every dollar of spending to make sure taxpayers are getting value for money.”

But there is speculation that this and other funding programs will be curtailed or delayed to help the government meet its promised budget surplus. And it wouldn’t be the first element of its Clean Energy Future package to be redrawn, following the decision to dump the carbon floor price and the proposed buyout of coal-fired generators.

Alle Tresoriero, the marketing director for SolarSwitch, said the company felt it was working in the dark. “We’ve undertaken a lot of time and expense in our business – educating our staff about the possibilities and manufacturers.”

She cited the position of one manufacturer who was looking to put a 200kW solar power system on its roof. “The grants made solar extremely attractive option,” Tresoriero said.

“Commercial solar is still a very new concept and companies yet to fully realise the impact of rising electricity costs and how much solar power can help with that,” she said.

“We are only just getting down to the point where it is getting to the 5 year payback area – which is the target ROI (return on investment) for companies. We’re just getting to that point now but this scheme provided further incentives for companies to invest in solar power.“

Another solar consultant cited a food manufacturer with ageing cool rooms. The customer was paying 36c/kWh, but a combination of solar PV and energy efficiency would reduce its costs, and the consumption at peak periods.

“If we can achieve this they will have both reduced electricity consumption (saving on electricity bill) and can defer the transformer upgrade for some years,” he said. “But the total cost without help will mean they simply leave the cool rooms until they fail completely, and upgrade the transformer to meet their growing peak demand. So they will increase the load on the grid, and not invest in other areas of the business, like more employees.”

The situation in Australis is not unique. In the US, for instance, the solar industry  is facing similar issues, as highlighted in this piece on Greentech Media this week – where they flagged a potential installation of 75GW of solar PV in the country by the end of the decade – 15 times its current capacity – and massive resistance from utilities.

In Australia, the utilities have become concerned because of recent forecasts that suggest up to 18GW of solar PV could be installed in the country over the next few decades. Some private forecasts suggest that could happen within a decade.

As David Crane, the head of leading US energy generator NRG, said earlier this year, solar PV represents the biggest threat to the conventional energy industry in half a century. In the Greentech Media piece, the solar companies said utilities in the US were so powerful they acted as “a fourth arm of government” and won’t give up easily. Professor Ross Garnaut has commented on the extent of regulatory capture in the Australian industry, hence the ability to “gold plate” networks and extract huge compensation packages for the carbon price.

 

Comments

14 responses to “War against solar: pricing regulator favours gross tariffs”

  1. Tim Buckley Avatar
    Tim Buckley

    Regulatory capture – so obvious, and so depressingly effective. How to kill off new competition! Solar will transform the rest of the world’s energy market over the next decade, while Australia sits back and watches.

  2. Inigo Avatar
    Inigo

    Can anyone comment on whether any government agency or utility has the power to compel those with (or considering) solar pv to connect via a gross metering arrangement as opposed to a net arrangement. It seems simple enough to get an electrician to install the solar meter on the house side of the grid meter. Am I missing something?

    1. Tim Avatar
      Tim

      I think a similar hypothetical is to say that you wire your house to a solar and battery system. You then use your grid connection (or an extension lead from your neighbour?) to recharge the battery when required.

      No gross metering required, unless off-grid solar PV is made illegal!

    2. KarenS Avatar
      KarenS

      In Victoria, the meters are installed by the distributors, not by electricians. Normally there is only one meter for both the solar array and the grid connection, with several registers to measure what electricity goes where and when. There are not separate ‘solar’ and ‘grid’ meters.

      1. Roger Avatar
        Roger

        In qld , energex fitted my meter. It has 2 readings , one is usage and the other is what i put into the system. A plus and a minus figures. I get paid for what i produce. On my electricity bill/ credit invoice ! it shows what i used and cost and what i produced and credit. I only have had 1 bill/credit invoice for 62 days of solar out of 98 days billing with a 1.9 kw system / 3kw inverter and already have solar hot water and got a $56.31 c CREDIT. Cannot wait for my next invoice. I generated 0.44100 Tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions , so my usage is small.

      2. Tim Avatar
        Tim

        Maybe Inigo meant solar inverter, not ‘meter’.

        If a business or household can use most of the power from their solar array during the day, the 8c/kWh feed-in tariff from the utility is not beneficial. They simply have to purchase less power from the utility.

        In which case, they may not want their solar connection metered at all.

  3. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    Giles, can you please explain how this gross Feed in Tariff is different from the Gross Feed in Tariff where all the Solar generated is “bought” by the utility.

    Is this another example of meanings taking on their oppposite as in 1984.

    I am hypothesizing that perhaps it means all the Solar generated is “sold” by the utility?

    1. Giles Parkinson Avatar
      Giles Parkinson

      That is exactly what it is. Gross. Owners of rooftop solar will effectively be required to sell all their output from their panels, and then buy it back from the utilities at a higher rate.

      1. Dan Cass (@DanJCass) Avatar

        What would Ned Kelly say?

        You are right Giles, its highway robbery by the gentailers.

  4. Mark Shakeshaft Avatar
    Mark Shakeshaft

    It’s an interesting turn of events in Qld, under a premium tariff situation the argument was nett metering would encourage consumer load reduction (or in reality load shifting). Under the new situation let’s not encourage consumer management, load matching and potential optimisation behind the meter, let’s force income for distributors and retailers from an asset they don’t own. Sounds like anti-competitive behavior. It will lead to disconnections from the grid and where’s the distributors revenue then?

  5. Warwick Avatar
    Warwick

    This is less of a war (no, Godzilla is not tearing down the electrical wires just yet!) and more of a call for a review of the way network charging is performed for small customers. Given that the maximum demand on the network is the driver of capacity requirements (not the kWh) and hence the cost of the network, perhaps charging users for demand is the appropriate way to go….larger users of energy already have demand, energy and standing charges.

    What needs to be understood is that regardless of your PV system installed, that if you import the same number of kWs as your neighbour, you effectively require the same network investment. i.e. it’s about maximum demand not the kWh. This means that if PV doesn’t significantly reduce your demand at your peak, then it ain’t helping the need for network investment. This basically tells you that batteries may be the game changer as they should reduce the needs for both energy (kWh) and maximum demands (kW)…the problem then that this can create (especially if people disconnect from the grid) is how the smaller number of connections pay a larger share of the original network investment costs.

  6. Mart Avatar
    Mart

    If minimising reliance on grid-sourced electricity is seen as avoiding a disproportionate amount of network costs, then the QCA gross-metering proposal is clearly incomplete.

    Besides PV there are many other ways of minimising reliance on grid-sourced electricity. Energy efficiency comes to mind as well as powering appliances and vehicles with other sources of energy than electricity from the grid. Not to mention leaving the grid entirely. Clearly all this would put a disproportionate burden on households who are not into clean energy, energy efficiency or minimising peek demand.

    Hence some additions to the QCA gross-metering proposal would be required:
    – Immediate stop to all energy efficiency regulation;
    – No disconnections from the grid;
    – At least one electric car per household;
    – No below-average household electricity bills.

    No doubt this can be done in can-do-land.

  7. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    Hi Giles , I am in qld and installed a 1.9kw system with a 3kw inverter in early 2012.With Newman’s changing the rules now, do I have to install the 1.1kw panels to bring up to the 3kw mark in the 12 months under the new laws or can i just add panels when i can afford them , without getting penalised by the new laws ? Thanks in advance.

  8. Bill Avatar
    Bill

    An article describing how effective net tarrifs have been in Denmark here: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/denmark_to_reach_2020_installation_goal_by_q4_2012#comments

    The title says it all.

Get up to 3 quotes from pre-vetted solar (and battery) installers.