Article sourced from SolarQuotes
From 1 July, electricity retailers across New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland began rolling out new retail offers under the Federal Government’s Solar Sharer Offer scheme.
Under the scheme, eligible households can opt into plans with retailers offering at least three hours of free daytime electricity each day. The initiative was designed to encourage households to shift electricity use to the middle of the day, when rooftop solar generation is at its highest.
In New South Wales, participating retailers are offering free electricity between 11am and 2pm. In South East Queensland and South Australia, retailers are offering free electricity between 12pm and 3pm.
Victoria has also preparing to introduce a similar initiative. From 1 October, eligible households will be able to access the Midday Power Saver scheme, which provides three hours of free electricity between 11am and 2pm.
According to SolarQuotes, several retailers, including ENGIE, Origin, Red Energy, Dodo, OVO and Sumo, launched Solar Sharer plans, while AGL and GloBird had already introduced similar free daytime electricity offers.
Ronald Brakels, resident fact checker for SolarQuotes, told the SwitchedOn podcast that Solar Sharer plans could be of particular benefit for battery owners who can charge up with free electricity to use later on when electricity prices are at their peak.
“They’ll charge it for free in the middle of the day, and then the battery will be full early in the afternoon every day. Once you have more people using their own battery power in the evening, the demand for grid electricity drops,” Ronald said.
Ronald also noted that electric vehicle owners could also make good use of the free electricity periods, although he noted they would be the most likely to exceed the 24 kWh free electricity cap on Solar Sharer plans. People who own solar only may not be as well-suited to Solar Sharer, since they are already getting free or close to free daytime power, and these plans are expected to feature higher costs elsewhere to balance out the free periods.
Evidentally, the rollout of the Solar Sharer scheme has not gone without its challenges. One major electricity retailer failed to meet the mandatory 1 July launch deadline for the Solar Sharer scheme and advised customers its new offer would not be available until September.
In a comment to Australian Financial Review, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, criticised the delay, warning retailers that they are expected to comply with the new requirements.
“I make clear to EnergyAustralia publicly and privately my expectation that they comply with the law or they will be dealt with the full force of regulation … EnergyAustralia customers have every right to be aggrieved and every right to switch their business to a business that is compliant with the law,” Minister Bowen said.
Minister Bowen has asked the energy regulator and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate companies that have bumped up supply charges at a time when electricity prices were expected to drop.
Retailers pushing up supply charges say the move is driven by regulatory changes that enforce maximum usage and fixed rate fees, rather than the previous setting of retailers being left to determine the allocation of costs between usage and supply charges.
For more information about the Solar Sharer Offer, visit the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website.
