Twenty-five billion reasons for ministers to support urgent consumer energy reform

Australians have made a significant investment in renewable energy and electrification. However, we are not seeing the full potential of this cheap and clean solar power across the grid.

This is why our eyes are on the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council (ECCMC) meeting this Friday in Perth, where we hope to see the start of much-needed consumer solar energy policy and regulation reform.

Rooftop solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles/chargers, and home energy management technologies – often referred to as distributed or consumer energy resources – play a huge role in Australia’s electricity networks by generating and storing household energy “behind the meter.”

Millions of Australian households and businesses have invested $25 billion in renewable energy over the past decade. They have collectively installed enough rooftop solar to power more than 3 million homes.

If we are to maximise solar value and continue to lower household power bills, we need Australia’s governments to act on smarter technical policy and regulation.

The energy regulators urgently need to rewrite the rules to benefit households and businesses, and not just big industry.

The energy market rules were written in the interests of large industrial players, which made sense when electricity was primarily produced by large coal plants. But we are part-way through a transition that will see cheaper and cleaner renewables take over energy production, with rooftop solar as the largest combined source of renewable energy.

Thus, energy regulations need to be rewritten to support not only Australian consumers’ past investment, but also the estimated future investment of $250 billion in household energy and electrification – which includes solar, electric vehicles, and smart appliances.

Recent research by ITP Renewables shows that these investments will make electricity cheaper for everyone – which should be the goal of our energy ministers amid a cost of living crisis.

As a previous solar sales entrepreneur, I helped many families and businesses invest in solar to cut down on electricity bills.

However, the energy market doesn’t have the rules or systems which prioritise the best use of this clean energy consumer investment, or even reward households or businesses for using their appliances at the sunniest time of day.

Great investment and great sacrifices have been made by citizens in the uptake of solar and batteries. Now we need a policy and regulatory environment that complements this investment accordingly.

Solar Citizens wrote to federal energy and climate change minister Chris Bowen in the lead-up to this week’s meeting, asking him for national reforms to support consumer energy resources.

Our letter was accompanied by 800 letters from other solar citizens who mirrored our call. Together we made specific requests asking for proper technical standards, effective coordination, and governance to support consumer solar, batteries, and electric vehicles. These changes include how distribution networks are remunerated, and greater transparency of network performance data.

To make the most of rooftop solar, we need to reward households for flexing their electricity when they choose to and provide subsidies for battery storage.

Only one in seven households installed a battery with their solar system last year, we need many more to reduce costs over time. To do so, we’ll need subsidies, just as we have done for household solar, for a few years until costs fall far enough that they are readily affordable.

These measures will directly lower power bills for all families and small businesses. Without these corrective measures, we will not stay on pace to achieve the Government’s 82% renewable energy by 2030 goal.

We have 25 billion current and 250 billion future reasons to support energy policy and regulatory reform for consumer energy resources like rooftop solar, but we only need one, and that is to do everything we can to keep lowering the cost of living through the cheapest form of electricity on earth – the generation of rooftop solar.

Roger Wilkins is the Clean Energy Policy Director for Solar Citizens – an advocacy group focused on the cost of living benefits consumers can harness from renewable energy and clean transport.