Electrification: AGL offers platform to help customers cost EVs, solar, heat pumps, batteries and cooktops

AGL Energy, still the biggest coal fired generator in the country, is dipping its toes into the new Consumer Data Right (CDR) data sharing ecosystem with a platform allowing consumers to compare the impact of different electrification technologies on thier budget. 

The Electrify Now platform personalises and automates the process of finding out whether adding any or all of solar, battery, heat pump hot water, an electric vehicle (EV) and/or induction cooktop technology is worthwhile. 

The platform is available only for people living in the National Electricity Market, which does not include Western Australia or Northern Territory, or those on standalone systems.

The website offers advice on the size of solar panel array that might suit based on electricity bill payments and an estimated payback period for solar, battery and heat pumps.

It then estimates annual energy savings, bill savings and carbon dioxide emissions savings from the selected technologies, giving curious consumers a ballpark figure of what they might be able to expect if they begin electrifying their homes – and where they would get the most bang for their buck. 

The market-wide rollout is based on a pilot program that tested the idea on 6,500 AGL customers but which just included solar and battery systems. 

Results from that program indicated that 62 per cent of customers who participated were interested in electrification to help reduce the cost of their energy bills, with 77 per cent of those surveyed interested in upgrading to an electric water system.

“Whether or not you are a customer with AGL, households will have access to personalised information about the potential benefits of an electric home,” says AGL chief customer officer Jo Egan.

“We’ve taken the lessons from the pilot to significantly enhance the experience to help empower Australians in making the first step to home electrification.

“Electrify Now service complements policies and programs being rolled out by state and federal governments that support energy efficiency and electrification technologies for homes.”

AGL – once known as the Australian Gas Light Co – will be the first Australian energy retailer to use CDR electricity data as well for electrification savings discovery. The gas industry is mostly fighting the trend, but the biggest electricity retailers, like AGL, now accept it as the future.

The CDR for energy retailers launched in 2022 and gives consumers the right to control over what data is shared with companies and exactly how it is used. But with the first industry to be launched into the new technology – banking – dragging its heels, movement is slow. 

AGL says that users with a smart meter will be able to use the data collected to estimate potential energy bill and carbon savings from upgrading to home electrification products.