This is a clear demonstration of a broken market – an electricity market in desperate need of reform.
This is a clear demonstration of a broken market – an electricity market in desperate need of reform.
ESCOSA believes in the market.
The retail electricity market is about as transparent as a lump of coal and good luck to anyone trying fathom whether they are getting a good deal or not.
Comparing retail electricity plans is like comparing apples with oranges, plums, beetroot, almonds or mushrooms. The idea of most retailers is to treat their customers like mushrooms.
People these days have busy lives and don’t want to be lumped with having compare an endless variety of market offers designed to confuse whether it be car, home, life or health insurance, mobile or internet plans, banking, superannuation, investment and on and on.
To rely on deliberately opaque retail electricity companies to set fair market rates for solar exports and play a positive role in encouraging renewable energy is fanciful when their main (only) motivation is to maximise profit.
Join Solar Citizens campaign for a Fair Price for Solar now http://www.solarcitizens.org.au/national_fair_price_for_solar
No point sending a request to the PM. He appears to be so deeply in the pockets of the Fossil Fuel (FF) industry, no amount of emails is going to make any difference. His underlings will filter everything before he gets to see it.
Claire the state of Maine has commissioned a detailed report on the value of solar being used – it is the most detailed, complete one I have seen. If you would like a copy – drop me a mail – [email protected]…….Peter
I think we would all like to see that. Please post link here !
Fair this year is not going to be the same next year.
As more solar goes in, eventually the grid is saturated with solar in the middle of the day, and the value of that energy at that time will be very close to zero, for every generation source.
With some luck we may have enough storage to save it all for times of greater need.
Except that we’re still a very long way from saturation, as can be seen by checking NEM Watch on this site. It seems to me that, in the middle of summer, it’s about 10% of the mix, happily providing peak power for all the office buildings and air conditioners. Oversupply – it’s hard to imagine. We already have storage in the biggest states – it’s called hydro and can be dialled up and down as needed. In some cases, we have pumped hydro where it can be pumped back up using excess power. We’ll have a lot more batteries down the track and the PV power will be flattened out and used and provided through the evening peak.
The fact is that solar PV is an essential part of the energy mix and if it were removed the electricity supply would be in trouble. It should be rewarded accordingly.
So very well stated. The reaction of ESCOSA would be understandable if the percentage of the solar component of the energy generation mix was very much higher. Why then are they taking such a punitive stand against household solar exports? Their actions are sure to shoot themselves in the foot as a solar households use this perverse disincentive for solar as an incentive for home storage.
This is strait theft, Merry Christmas SA solar households from ESCOSA.
The under valuing of Solar PV by the various state commissions has happened almost in every Australian state, a few disturbing things become evident, the commissions fail;
– to realise that the current economic model set up to operate our energy networks is very broken and yet not only do nothing to help fix it but the opposite.
– to understand the enormity of the current unstoppable energy transition as Alan Finkel has pointed out.
– to protect the ordinary citizen from exploitation buy the incumbent players
– to understand the current energy system is having many significant negative effects on our current and future citizens, almost as though they have a mission to inflict willful damage due to gross professional ignorance.
To add insult to injury the very citizens are funding these commissions either directly or indirectly.
I have a (very) faint hope that in 2017 we see major changes to value any move to decarbonise in line with the science.
Strait should be straight.
Victorian Govt has just increased FIT based on TOU (time of use).
100% Off grid is viable and revenue neutral in S.A now for a stand alone home with unshaded 4-5kw of solar panels over an 8 year cycle if you use LPG for some cooking , solar hot water and a Tesla Powerwall 2
Off grid will just get cheaper and more viable from now on.
The benefits are not just cheaper energy costs but a more reliable service that is much greener
And you can send a clear message by doing so that you don’t agree with or support the predatory behaviour of what was once a public asset providing an essential service.
So the huge amount of renwable power has pushed prices up enough to make going off grid viable?
Yes that appears to be the case in S.A
Although i’m in regional NSW and went 100% off grid as the daily access fee is double the Sydney Metro RATE and the cost per kwh is more too.
The costs in regional NSW kept going up and the grid reliability went down . So it reaches a point where you have to go off grid to maintain a reliable and affordable service.
I guess the corporate world cant do more for less in the energy industry like many other industries can do such as telcommunications
So renewables really do push up the price of electricity
I would say high electricity prices drove me to renewables in my case ( going 100% off grid)
However if another company had a better deal i would still be on the grid.Unfortunately there were none.
And it’s not just the cost savings why i went renewables , but also the grid reliability in Qld and NSW (i’ve been off grid in both those states) I got sick of starting the genset when the power went off in storms or for Grid maintenance to be quite honest
AND the fact that meter readers (in Qld) turn up with no I.D and look like criminals. That’s unacceptable IMO ,and the only resolution is to put your meter at the front gate so they don’t need to come onto your property.That’s not easy or cost effective to do in an existing installation in many cases.
I’m not sure if Renewables push up the price of Electricity. Not really my area of expertise.