Home improvement / Energy saving / Solar
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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…
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.
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:
To access the Solar Sharer Offer, you need to:
Calculated on peak solar generation for each region, the 3-hour free windows are:
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.
Before you dive headlong into a SSO plan, it’s vital to compare its rate charges against your current plan as they could actually be higher.
Yes, you might enjoy three hours of power on the house, so to speak, but if you’re paying more for peak rates or daily connection fees, you could be worse off when your bill rolls in.
That’s why it’s essential to do the maths first (as it is when considering any 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.
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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