New rules imposed in southwest Western Australia by sole network operator Western Power are turning customers off solar and jeopardising the livelihoods of installers, writes Gavin Dennett.
In February 2022, Western Power, the sole network operator in southwest Western Australia, introduced new circuit-breaker rules that aggrieved installers are saying is costing them business and affecting customers’ lives.
The rule applies to all new homes and existing homes undergoing major electrical alterations. It enforces the installation of a circuit breaker as the main switch and imposes maximum demand limits. It is not retrospective but has huge implications for any homeowner wishing to install rooftop solar panels, batteries and electric vehicle chargers, especially those living in the state’s rural and regional centres.
Under the new mandate – “Basic Embedded Generator Connection Technical Requirements” – imposed by Western Power, the standard connection services for properties in Perth and five other regional cities in Western Australia is capped at 63 amps for single-phase connections. This means as soon as a household’s load exceeds this limit, the main switch will trip.
Alarmingly for residents outside of metropolitan and major regional centres – which is about one-third of the state – the limit is just 32 amps, or for properties with a multi-phase rural connection, just 16 amps. This means that people living in rural locations need to ration their household appliance usage to avoid losing power until electrical items are switched off and the circuit breaker can be reset.
The new rule also has significant ramifications for the solar industry because the restrictions are limiting some residents’ ability to adopt rooftop PV systems, especially in country areas.
“Every network operator in Australia has a supply allocation, or a standard connection service, and for the past 20 to 30 years Western Power has been saying the standard connection service for single-phase properties – pretty much every house – is 63 amps if you live in Perth or regional centres with more than 40,000 people, and 32 amps elsewhere,” a regional Western Australian solar installer, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells EcoGeneration.
“This was probably appropriate in about 1965 when your average farmhouse had 10 power points and six lights, and a woodfired stove, heater and hot water service. But it is now 2022 and we are moving towards 100 per cent electric households with induction stoves, ducted air-conditioning, electric ovens and renewable energy.
“Western Power’s policy states if you want to use more than that, you have to apply for a service connection upgrade. So if you say your house wants to draw 50 amps, which is very standard for a normal house, the company will force you to buy a new transformer and upgrade the wiring, which could cost upwards of $100,000. Of course, nobody is going to do that.
“As of February 2022, Western Power introduced new rules saying anyone who connects a solar system or a battery system must replace the main switch for the property with a circuit breaker rated at the supply allocation so the instant you draw more than 32 amps, the circuit breaker trips and cuts off your power supply.”
A spokesperson for Western Power says: “32 amps is substantially more than the actual maximum demand used for most homes … and there is usually some diversity of usage of household appliances at any given time as it’s unlikely a household will use all its appliances at the same time.”
However, if 32 amps is deemed sufficient – which it certainly isn’t in a modern electrified home – it appears odd that homes in Perth and large regional centres have double the allocation, at 63 amps.
The installer EcoGeneration speaks to – who insists on anonymity due to a strained relationship with Western Power – says while the new rules are already crippling regional solar installers, he predicts the situation will get a lot worse.
“It’s not happening to a lot of homeowners just yet [because the rules aren’t retrospective] but it will be a ‘death by 1000 cuts’,” he says. “New homes take a while to build, but there is a growing number of people who signed a contract to build a house 18 months ago before these rules came in, and now they can’t run their stove when the air-conditioning is on, or they have to turn off the dryer and washing machine before having a shower in case the power trips out.
“The real canary in the coal mine is the solar industry. It is surprising that Western Power would include solar in the new rules because a solar power system doesn’t increase the load of your property, it reduces it. So solar customers are being punished for wanting to install a system that actually reduces a household’s grid demands.
“There are installers in this region who are turning away business every day. I know of at least 12 solar installers from the southwest who are losing work. One guy messaged me to say he turned away $150,000 worth of work just yesterday.
“I’m also turning away customers wanting to install solar. If it was six months earlier, I could have sold all these people a system that will slash their power bill, but now I can’t. Well, I can, but then Western Power will insist on a circuit breaker that will make the house unusable.”
Western Power says the new mandate is designed to manage the amount of electricity households draw to suit the capacity of regional networks. The company says: “’Load creep’ and generation needs to be effectively managed to ensure the stability of the network and provision of a reliable energy supply for all users.”
One of the problems the company is facing is it has to cater for a two-way flow of power into a system that was designed to travel one way. As household solar uptake increases, more energy is being sent back to the grid, placing strain on the network Western Power controls.
While the household amp limits have always been in place, the company is now enforcing them as a way to maintain smooth operation of the network, with the fallout being widely viewed as unfair and untenable.
The unnamed solar installer believes there are other factors at play.
“In my opinion, the real reason is the network has been vastly underfunded for decades and is woefully inadequate,” he says. “The load-carrying capacity and voltage capabilities of the network are significantly below what is required in order to provide a decent service to customers.
“Connecting solar power systems to such a strained and neglected network causes huge voltage regulation issues. The system was designed to have power flowing outwards from the power station where the voltage would be high out to the loads where voltage is low.
“Now we have lots of sun and are pushing power backwards into the network so the voltage at the consumers’ premises is going sky high. I can’t help but think this 32-amp circuit-breaker rule is being applied to solar in a deliberate attempt to discourage its connection to manage their voltage challenges.”
For Western Australian residents affected by the new mandate who want to switch to clean energy, there are other options available, primarily going off-grid.
“I have customers who want to go off-grid so I won’t go out of business tomorrow,” says the installer. “There are other solutions, too, such as demand side response and smart meters to reduce load.
“So far, a number of MPs have been approached, and the Western Australian Minister for Energy Bill Johnston has contacted Western Power who have said they will reconsider their position and deliver a response by the end of September. But in the meantime, so much damage is being done to Western Australian installers and residents on a daily basis. We are really suffering.
“Western Power needs to upgrade its network long-term, but in the short-term it must reduce the circuit-breaker rule – even if it puts stress on the grid for now – so people in the country can have the same standard of living and the same right to use electrical appliances as people in the city.”
