Electrification is saving the grid from mass defections
Australians are not quitting the grid in the numbers expected a decade ago, largely because household electrification means defecting makes less financial sense, experts say.
This is in contrast to the US, where a study suggests quitting the grid could be a sound financial decision for people living in high-solar areas.
In 2015, Australia was named as the world’s most likely country where citizens would start defecting en masse from the grid.
Many of the reasons why are still apparent today: high rooftop solar adoption, high power prices, falling battery costs, and anger at energy utilities about tariffs.
Networks were so worried about the revenue loss they proposed high disconnection fees even for properties not connected to the grid to stop defections.
But electrification is preventing the potential mass defection of up to a third of households from the grid, the figure suggested by a CSIRO and Energy Networks Association report in 2016.
And that means it’s unlikely distributed network service providers (DNSPs) will jack up supply charges or demand much higher disconnection fees.
And although networks across the country are creating “sun taxes', a fee to export rooftop solar power into the grid during peak periods, the cost is still immaterial compared to the savings people get from their rooftops.
That’s not to say people aren’t still keen on going off-grid, or that it doesn’t make sense for some areas in Australia.
In Queensland, with its spread of grid and high solar irradiance, intentions to defect from the grid have held steady at 28-29% for the last three years.
And increasing numbers of rural dwellers across Australia are swapping out high network charges for self-sufficiency.