ACT households offered $1/kWh for solar under virtual battery trial

Virtual battery trial Reposit Power offers Canberra homes $1/kWh solar power

A new trial has seen Canberra households earn $1.00 per kilowatt-hour for selling solar power back to the grid. The offer to homes with solar and storage systems is part of a large virtual battery trial by ActewAGL Distribution and Reposit Power.

Under the program, households equipped with Reposit solar and smart-battery technology received a higher feed-in tariff for solar energy.

More than 250 Canberra homes became players in the National Electricity Market, receiving a record price for their solar power.

Reposit’s GridCredits scheme offers households $1.00 for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of solar energy discharged. At current rates, this price is nine times higher than available feed-in tariffs for solar power.

Virtual battery provides one-megawatt solar storage

The ACT is a national leader in rooftop solar installations. More than 16,000 homes, along with every public school, have solar panels installed.

A virtual battery network trial is happening in the ACT
A virtual battery network trial is operating in the ACT.

According to Reposit CEO Dean Spaccavento, this is proof Australia is undergoing an energy revolution. Half the nation’s electricity will soon be provided by homes and businesses, he said.

The virtual battery will deliver one megawatt of power. With rooftop solar capacity growing at 100 MW every month, Spaccavento said virtual batteries could change the nature of energy storage.

“The advantage of creating a virtual big battery is that they can be built anywhere. Homeowners across Australia can be part of it and taxpayers aren’t left with the bill.”

Virtual batteries support grid at peak times

With a hot summer expected, the trial will test how the virtual battery can support the electricity grid at times of peak demand. It will also allow households to take advantage of price spikes in the market.

Reposit has released a software platform, Reposit Fleet, that helps utilities build their own virtual battery systems using household storage.

“Electricity companies can use a collection of Reposit systems to deliver electricity to the grid at very short notice,” Spaccavento said.

The trial came as South Australia flipped the switch on the 100MW Tesla battery – the world’s largest to date.

But Spaccavento said a virtual battery drawing on storage from households could fulfill the same role as the Tesla system.

“Unlike the South Australian big battery, when the virtual big battery isn’t performing demand response each individual battery goes back to supporting its household with solar after dark.”

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