Fancy three hours of free electricity every day? Well, that’s the ‘offer’ in the federal government’s new Solar Sharer Offer (SSO), which starts on Wednesday 1 July.
Designed to capitalise on Australia’s daytime solar surplus, this new initiative stipulates that electricity retailers must now offer at least one residential plan that includes three hours of free power daily, capped at 24 kilowatt-hours (kWh).
It’s available to home owners and renters alike, and you don’t need your own solar panels or battery to opt in.
There’s just one rather large catch at the moment…
The SSO only applies to some areas (for now)
Before we all get too excited, the SSO will only be available to residents that live in New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland.
Why? Because they are the areas covered by the Federal Government’s Default Market Offer (DMO) framework, which is administered by the Australian Energy Regulator.
Thankfully, there are plans to expand the SSO nationally at a later date
Other states and territories are not part of the DMO and have their own systems (for a myriad of complicated historical reasons) so are not included.
Thankfully, there are plans to expand the SSO nationally at a later date.
Australia is the world leader in rooftop solar generation, with the most installed solar capacity per capita and over four million photovoltaic (PV) systems now in operation.
That’s great news for clean renewable energy use, but it’s also resulted in a glut of surplus electricity being fed back into the grid during the day.
A solar panel owner’s app shows the daytime solar surplus (orange) going into the grid (blue).
Residents with home batteries can store it for later, but currently a lot of this excess power is being under-utilised, with wholesale prices dropping very low or even into negative.
By forcing retailers to give it away for free, the government aims to:
make this glut available to everyone on an SSO plan
encourage residents to shift their energy usage to these free windows, which will lower power bills
reduce electricity demand on the grid at night, which will hopefully reduce peak prices over time
ultimately share the benefits of the solar boom with more people (not just with those who can afford to install panels and batteries, which has been a criticism of the government rebates in the past).
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How do you get free electricity?
To access the Solar Sharer Offer, you need to:
live in NSW, South Australia or South East Queensland
opt into a retailer’s SSO plan – it’s not automatic
have a smart meter installed at home, as a SSO plan requires time-based billing – if you don’t have one, talk to your energy retailer.
You’ll need a smart meter at home to join a Solar Sharer plan. Photo: Yourhome.gov.au
When are the free power time periods?
Calculated on peak solar generation for each region, the 3-hour free windows are:
11am– 2pm for NSW and SE Queensland
12–3pm for South Australia
Catches and traps to watch out for
While free electricity sounds amazing, it’s important to keep the following in mind and evaluate whether an SSO electricity plan works for you and your home.
Remember, you’ll still be paying daily connection fees, electricity charges outside the free window (such as peak, shoulder or controlled load rates) and any green-offset fees.
Beware SSO plans with inflated rates
The government may have set up these free electricity windows, but they don’t set the other rates charged on the plan by your retailer.
That means there’s nothing stopping retailers hiking up these other fees to make up for giving away free power during the day.
There’s nothing stopping retailers hiking up these other fees to make up for giving away free power
So you might enjoy three hours of power on the house, so to speak, but if you’re paying higher peak rates or daily connection fees, you could be worse off when your bill rolls in.
That’s why it’s vital that you compare SSO plans with your current rates and do the maths before jumping on a new plan.
Well, it depends – largely on the retail plan fees as discussed in the previous section, but also on how much you can practically shift your electricity consumption to these three-hour windows.
If you can change your routine and run energy-hungry appliances such as dishwashers or washing machines, or charge your EV or e-bike, during the free-power window, you’ll definitely benefit. Using timers and/or smart appliance settings can also help – and save you – a lot.
Running a dishwasher in the day instead of at peak times can save you a lot of money over time.
For example, a dishwasher uses around one kWh per cycle, on average. Run it with free power and it’ll cost nothing, compared to a peak rate of, say, 35 cents per kWh at night (as an example). That might not seem like much a day, but over a year, you’ll save $127.75 by running a dishwasher load during the day.
Of course, the big handbrake on time-shifting your energy use is if your work or other commitments mean you’re not home much during the day. Yes, appliance timers are handy, but it’s not the same as being home in person to fully optimise your energy use.
Over a year, you’ll save $127.75 by running a dishwasher load during the day.
As a result, Solar Sharer plans will probably best benefit people who are retired, or at home working or on caring duties.
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