State energy minister says impact of home storage in “baking hot summer” shows grid at turning point

Penny Sharpe, the state minister for climate and energy in New South Wales, has hailed a “turning point” for the green energy transition in Australia as a result of the huge increase in storage over the last six months.

In a speech to the Smart Energy 2026 conference in Sydney, Sharpe pointed to the fact that renewables overtook coal in the country’s main grid, and – despite a “baking hot” summer – there was no “lack of reserve”.

“The last six months have been a turning point in the national electricity market,” Sharpe said. ‘The transition to renewables is no longer something that we talk about. It’s something that is well underway.”

She pointed to the role that home batteries are playing in soaking up the output from millions of solar rooftops and putting them back into the grid in the evening peaks, echoing comments from the Australian Energy Market Operator last week.

“Families in western Sydney, in Wollongong, in Broken Hill and the Tweed could run their air conditioners on hot summer nights while businesses and industries went about their business, and that is exactly how it should be,” Sharpe said.

“The rebuild and transformation of our energy system is underway and, despite all of the naysayers, it is working.”

NSW is rolling out five renewable zones across the state, with the first towers now being erected in the first, the Central West Orana Zone, which will support dozens of new large scale wind and solar projects.

But Sharpe said it was the distributed and consumer energy – the rooftop solar systems and home batteries – that is reshaping the energy system “at a pace previously thought impossible.”

“No one in this room needs to be told that Australia leads the world when it comes to rooftop solar, and we are now leading the world in battery storage thanks to the federal government’s Cheaper Home Battery program.

“NSW is leading nationally in battery uptake and on the numbers I got this morning, we’ve installed more than 134,000 batteries in the first year alone, almost double of the next state behind us.”

The benefits of the home battery scheme are now starting to emerge with great clarity. AEMO has directly credited the now more than 381,000 home batteries with helping on grid reliability and lowering wholesale prices.

The Australian Energy Regulator also credits the home batteries as being a key part of the growing renewable mix that will lower wholesale prices, and should feed through to consumer bills, and potentially moderate the need for new investments in the grid.

NSW, however, still has a big task in ensuring enough large scale wind and solar is built to allow it to phase out the last of its ageing coal fired generators within a decade, although Sharpe talked of a 15 year timeframe for the closure of the last coal plant.

The state this week announced proposed new laws that would allow the minister to identify and list large scale projects that could be fast-tracked through the planning process, in a similar manner to what has happened in Victoria. She said it will not mean a lowering of assessment criteria.

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are currently being rolled out at a pace

last six months

baking hot summer, no lack of reserve.

batteries.

that is how it should be.

the rebuild and transformation is underway, and despite all the nay-sayers it is working.

we’re seeing the benefits of batteries. easing reliance on expensive generation, and evening peaks.

three things we need to get right

how to get most out of home batteries. how to unlock orchestration. VPP offer avenue to pool and maximise opportunities. how well are we explaining to household. 17% of households have signed up to VPP – good progress and we got a long way to go

need to drive that further

need people to opt into VPP. are the arrangements simple, are they fair. are they getting real value. need to ensure answer to thee questions is yes.

need to retain community trust.

need high quality installation and safe.

“Benefits of batteries.” Sharpe says impact of home storage in “baking hot summer” shows grid at turning point

bidirectional charging – next thing we need to get right.