I took a very excited call yesterday as the Federal Government’s Cheaper Home Battery program officially launched. My old industry friend said “Your’e the only person I know that could relate to how I’m feeling – I’ve realised batteries are going to turn the grid upside down and my mind is blown”

My friend started by describing how their company had sold Megawatt hours of batteries and it was growing by the minute. “ I just did some quick math’s and realised that if all my competitors install similar volumes to me, the duck curve is a dead duck. Peak demand times will change forever and that’s before anyone does anything clever with their EV’s or wholesale trading kicks in. My little solar solar company is changing the entire nature of the National Electricty Market!”

We talked at length about the opportunities and challenges ahead and the ever evolving complexity of rules, regulations and options that now affect solar offers. Unless you have a deep knowledge of how they interellate and some very sophisticated software explaining “what happens if..” to solar storage buyers is becoming like the DaVinci code.

Let me give you an example.

Mrs Jones has solar and wants to add a battery and more solar. Sounds simple.

Solar retailers have to navigate complex and State specific rules which set hard limits on how much can be installed and ipso facto, forces designers to choose specific produts that fit these rules. If you cross a threshold, the rules change and in most states you’ll now need to allow for Dynamic control, which means you now need products that can do that.

But Mr Jones has an existing inverter and in some States that also needs to be controlled if you expand so now, your product selection changes again, because controlling two different inverters brands is not something many companies can do. Its like expecting a Ford speedo to work in your Monaro and it’s not cool.

Being an older inverter, its quite likely that if it even has the capability of being controlled it will use a different method so now we have a system thats going to have multiple signals coming at it, in different ways depending on what the local energy network or Retailer wants to do and that changes if there’s an emergency on the NEM.

But hey, we can build it so we do.

Then Mrs Jones says “Oh, and I need you to ensure I can charge my new EV using my solar and cheap grid power sometimes, but I think those deals vary by season so please make that happen. Oh, and I also might randomly want to completely override it to charge at any time”

So now, we have a huge load that has to be automated, knows when and where to get cheap energy, is seasonally adjustable and also cater for little Jimmy’s possible trip to the hospital with a broken arm.

But there’s  catch – in some States EV chargers must be capable of central control in case the network cant deliver the energy you want at the time you want, so you need another communication and control system. 

So you check and adjust you solar product design again.

Luckily, Mr Jones has arrived home and he has been talking to a friend at the office who told him “Maaaaate, you have to get into wholesale trading that energy from your new solar storage system – it’s better than Crypto” so he wants to know how to ensure thats included too.

If you are in WA or NSW and want the biggest bang for your rebate buck wholesale trading is Mandatory but Mr Jones will lose his ability to decide what’s bought and sold and when, with that power going to his retailer, albeit with a financial reward.

To keep things fun for my solar retailer friend, if he’s selling into WA, the list of State approved batteries had not been released by July 1, despite that being National B Day, so knowing which products he is legally allowed to use is….tricky.

Then Mrs Jones mum calls.

“Have you seen the polar-double-genesis-east-coast contra rotating-cyclone-bomb thats coming your way? You have candles in case the power goes out, don’t you?”

The always savvy Mrs Jones twigs instantly and pipes up saying “Listen young man, my freezer has to feed an army of teenage grots and lamb doesnt grow on tree’s you know, tell me this system will run our house if Cyclone Watchamacallit hits or you’re out of here. This could go on for days and I want guarantees”

So, my friend now has to ensure the system can switch over in a blackout, keep ten mobile phones charged, ensure the EV is getting fed, run 352 lights and not miss a single second of the latest episode of MAF’s.

Okay then…

But solar people love a challenge and our technology is insanely clever so all of this is not only possible, it’s actually happening every single day. (sometimes well, sometimes not so well – caveat emptor!)

Six months on, two of the kids have declared “FIFO is the shiz”, so they’re long gone and energy demand has dropped by two terrawatt hours. Mr and Mrs Jones are no doubt, proudly extolling the virtues of their solar storage system to their neighbours, the tuck shop crew and the postman, who is particularly savvy.

“That’s cool, but you’re not still with Arigin Energy are you?” he says. “My friend Stu says they’re the worst. Take it from me, you should switch to OGL”.

With a Bali trip in the works, Mrs Jones is keen to save every cent she can, so she Googles “best energy deals” and withinin minutes her inbox is full of offers and here phone is running off the hook for deals that are only available until 5pm today. But she is paralysed by the complexity of the 40 odd rate deals that she has access to and can’t work out which one will actually help her.

To compound matters, several of the offers now include a “Two Way tariff” which penalises her for exporting energy at certain times of day, and many include a demand tariff  which uses tarot cards to pick a demand number and then charges you a real-estate-agent-like commission for the next quarter century.

Being very good at detail she also notices that the daily charge has risen from $1.00 to $2.66 per day and its kind of like pimples on a teenager – theres nothing much that can be done. 

“Surely there’s an app that can work this out for me?” she complains to Mr Jones.

During this period of retail tariff paralysis, turns our Mrs Jones’ mum was dead on the money and before you know it a cyclone hits during a drought and suddenly the power goes out. Before Mr Jones can even de-recline his Jason recliner “plink” everything switches back on – the back up has worked, the wifi reboots and MAF’s is back.

“Thank christ for that” they say. But their joy is short lived.

Only five minutes later theres a flicker and their app starts shouting at them to take action. “Your battery is perilously low in energy” it warns. “Your 15kW ducted air conditioner and 22kW EV charger will flatten your battery in 5,4,3,2,1….”

“This is bullshit!” says Mr Jones instantly speed dialling my friend the solar retailer in the dark.

Turns out, the impending storm fears caused the wholesale price of energy to go through the roof and Arigin Energy saw the chance to drain the battery and make a thousand bucks in ten seconds. So they did, because they can, leaving no reserve for Jonesy. 

That was a fairly long hyphtetical example, but I think you get my drift. 

Designing, operating and fine tuning solar storage system behaviour is rapidly becoming like unravelling the DaVinci code. 

Understanding the correct sequence of code is no longer the domain of Stu the posty’s mate. It needs highly experienced solar people, a deep understanding of needs and expectations and highly intelligent, adaptable hardware and software.

The cool part is, Australia is actually leading the world in this stuff and we have some very clever people in our industry. The scary part is keeping up with it all and not clicking on that Facebook add for “Interest Free Solar Storage validated as legit by an aging sports guy”

Good luck!