Extract from ABC News
A home battery scheme involving Tesla technology will be expanded to allow low-income South Australian residents without solar panels to participate.
Key points:
- Households not suitable for solar will now be able to participate in the Tesla battery scheme
- The SA government says even without solar, it will deliver the same level of savings
- A trial of the original scheme in 1,100 households will also be expanded to another 3,000 homes
The SA government said the next phase of its virtual power plant (VPP) project would lead to cheaper energy prices for struggling consumers, as well as less pressure on the grid, by storing excess energy generated during low demand.
The installation of Tesla batteries and solar panels in South Australian homes was first announced by the previous government in 2018 as part of a plan to create a VPP.
Solar systems and batteries have so far been supplied and installed free of charge to 1,100 Housing SA homes, with the cost of the project financed through the sale of electricity generated by the panels.
But Energy Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said that not everyone who wanted to participate had been able to, and a variant scheme would be trialled in 20 housing trust homes that were not suited to solar.
"We haven't been able to deliver for all of those people because some of them — their homes weren't quite right for solar," he said.
"Perhaps there's a tree shading the roof, or the roof faces the wrong way, perhaps structurally the roof is not quite right for a solar installation.
Munno
Para resident Wendy Brown does not have solar power but has had a Tesla
battery installed and said she had noticed a "big change" in her bills.
"It used to be $1,500 with AGL and now it's halved," she said.
"It's very stressful for the big bills but I'm very relieved now … it's changed my life a lot. I've got money now."
The government said the scheme would complement measures to combat the oversupply of solar, and that the 20 participants were still being selected.
"We've been working with Tesla for quite a few years now on the virtual power plant [and have] asked housing trust tenants to put their hands up if they'd like to be part of [it]," he said.
"We'll have a trial, 20 houses, we'll prove it up and then we'll roll it out further across the state."
Existing solar scheme also boosted
Under the full and existing battery-and-solar scheme, solar panels generate power which is then stored by a home battery and can be used by households or fed into the grid.
The VPP is part of a deal struck between then SA premier Jay Weatherill and tech guru and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2018.
Another 3,000 properties will be included as part of the next phase, taking the total to 4,100 — still well short of the 50,000 originally envisaged.
But Mr van Holst Pellekaan said there could still be "very, very significant savings … from having a battery only".
He said that participants in the battery-only scheme would have their bills slashed by almost a third in exchange for taking part.
"We can find that a battery alone, as part of the Tesla VPP, can still deliver the 29 per cent savings on electricity prices that other housing trust and public housing homes are receiving," he said.
"Through the aggregation of all of these batteries, being part of the broader SA VPP, they work in a concerted way to support the grid."
With energy looming as a key battleground ahead of the next state election, the expansion of the scheme comes on top of a range of other measures and proposals.
Yesterday, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) granted final regulatory approval for the proposed $2 billion interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales.
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