Australia’s solar and storage market is set to get a much-needed pick-me-up, with the formation of a new strategic partnership between battery storage provider, Solar Service Group, and solar optimisation company, Evergen.
Evergen’s technology – developed by the CSIRO and backed by AMP Capital – uses a household’s power consumption patterns and weather forecasts to decide when to use solar power, when to store it, and when to draw from the grid, depending on what is most cost-effective for the household.
Solar SG – which operates under its Solar Service Group, Sunbank Solar and SouthAus Solar banners – has installed “thousands” of batteries around Australia, and thus has plenty of customers that might want to make better use of their stored solar power.
The companies plan to launch a first stage of a virtual power plant initiative with Solar SG customers in the first quarter of 2020. The companies believe there is potential to create the “biggest single fleet” of batteries globally.
“With more than 8,000 batteries installed nationally already, our current and future customers will benefit from Evergen’s world class optimisation software,” Solar SG chairman Rod Woolley said.
“Our partnership will enable all Evergen and Solar SG customers to be connected to energy markets, generating additional savings from participating in grid-scale initiatives,” he said.
A side goal, although perhaps even more important, is to boost the uptake of battery storage in Australia by improving the economics of the investment for Australia’s millions of solar households.
“This will dramatically reduce the payback period for consumers and provide concurrent benefits for the network and other energy consumers,” Woolley said.
For Evergen, which last month launched a $7 million fund-raising round, the partnership with Solar SG paves the way for a big push into the Australian solar optimisation market.
As reported on RE, the company has successfully completed trials in New Zealand and signed its first international software distribution deal with South African battery distributor Midnight Sun Energy Storage Systems.
“After various trial programs … this partnership … puts us in a position to take our proposition nationwide to our combined network of customers,” Evergen CEO Ben Hutt said.
“Blending Solar SG’s excellence in research and marketing and national deployed fleet together with Evergen’s software, this will be the biggest single fleet of batteries globally.”
Hutt said consumers would enjoy significant cost savings through VPPs by trading the excess energy in their batteries to benefit the network and other energy consumers.
“This is a revolutionary way of supporting the grid, unlocking energy savings for customers and helping to lower our carbon footprint,” he added
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
This post was published on December 19, 2019 2:01 pm
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Isn't a VPP under current review for regulatory purposes by AEMO? How do the current grid distributors feel about this as in the end they control what will go into he grid. I am also not sure of the cost savings with this type of system, it may be beneficial if you are a high energy user but there must be a cost involved to have this so called smart software managing the system, I see this is not noted in the article. Let's say a monthly fee of $10 means the system has to enhance your savings by $120 per year just to break even before the system can even generate any further net savings that could have already been achieved.. I have done the maths on batteries and it is still not viable for a decent ROI, however solar does offer excellent ROI statistics.
We have had an Evergen system with ESS for two years and continue to be in credit with our retailer, despite the grid connection costs and low FIT: the CSIRO software is smart enough. In any case, who cares about the time to break even when you have added value to your property and played your part in cutting emissions?
Hi Jonathon, to be in credit with your retailer you must be a very low energy user with most of the excess PV generation going back to the grid. This does not mean that any software is providing the savings for credit energy bills it means that you as a low energy user is the catalyst. A question does you battery cycle once a day? i.e does it deplete to 10% and charge to 100% once a day? this is where battery savings occur due to depleting energy at high tariff times. Another question, if "intelligent software" is instigating your savings do you see it charge during the off-peak period to support the more expensive morning shoulder load? Does it charge in early afternoon in shoulder tariff period to ensure enough capacity for the evening peak tariff period? If not then the "smart software" is doing nothing, you are. Also if you are on flat tariff then well no "smart software" will give you any advantage as there is no net benefit, you basically end up with a dumb battery. If you are on time of use then I suspect your savings are due to your excellent energy management skills and not some "smart software" and if this is correct then the ROI (which is what I was referring to) for the battery component at say 1k per kWh would be abysmal. Saying this, kudos if the motivation for your battery is for the environment, if I could afford it and see a decent ROI, I would be all in!
For the year ending Oct 2018 (which is when I had my 6.4kW PV array installed, I was paying approx $1800 per year (on the cheapest flat rate I could find at the time). After the solar install, and changing to AGL Solar Saver rate, as well as changing all light bulbs to LED, and getting my wife to only wash clothes on the weekend (off peak) or when the sun is shining the most, we have now reduced our last yearly bill to... $15 for the prior 12 months (that includes the daily service fee). Other than the small changes noted, we are a power hungry household with 5 computers, large screen TV and an old aircon (which is used any time the temp goes above 25 degrees.
So to say someone needs to be a low energy user is (in my case) was not quite correct (prior to solar) but now IS with solar, and it is the solar that has made the difference, not my usage, which has only changed in a very small way. My power usage now is averaged at minus 260kWh/month over the whole year. If I could show you my usage as displayed by United Energy I would. Feel free to PM me.
Just my 2c worth...
Beware!!
Remember, what is the point of going solar? Reduce costs, because our government and its service providers have not been able to provide cheap enough energy...greed/agendas 21 2030 2050... Look into it. SA politician Ann bressington knew about this, tried to wake people up back in 2013/2014.
Entire suburbs under construction could go off-grid, with pv and battery. All because of low feed-in tarriffs and cost saving of $20,000 -$30,000 per household by not connecting to the grid.