For many Australians, installing solar and a home battery is about taking greater control of household energy costs. Millions of households benefited from exporting their solar power during the day, and now, with the subsidies on batteries, they have expanded their home energy setup to put in a battery and use that solar power at night rather than export it during the day.
The days of high solar feed-in tariffs have gone, but there is a new game in town called ‘Virtual Power Plants’. A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is like a solar feed-in tariff, but for your battery. You can fill your battery up during the day from your solar system, then either use it at night or export it to the grid through a Virtual Power Plant connection to earn extra dollars.
Not all VPPs are made the same, though. Some are user-driven and need regular engagement, while others are ‘set and forget’ models, where you hand the export controls to your retailer and they export if and when they need to, and pay you for the energy you’ve traded.
Over the next year we will be showcasing all the VPP options available through our ‘Smart Energy Spotlight’ series of blogs. See all the new innovations and technology emerging in this space as the Australian energy transition speeds up and households become the new generators of energy.
Rather than wait for our whole series, jump onto our VPP comparison page.
As more Australians invest in home batteries, understanding the different ways those batteries can participate in the energy system is becoming increasingly important. And with different VPPs offering different benefits, there’s no single model that’s going to suit every household.
That’s why we’re launching Smart Energy Spotlight: to help battery owners better understand the options available and the different problems each VPP is designed to solve.
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