2 October

The grid is changing fundamentally, have a look. It’s no longer a one-way grid, where the electricity flows from power stations to homes and businesses. It’s two-way, most of the energy is actually now generated at those homes and businesses. It’s not one-to-many, it’s many-to-many. Check out ‘export’ charges, for homes and businesses who export to the grid. They’re still a long way ahead financially, but they’re now being asked to help pay for infrastructure (poles, wires and batteries) that should have been built over the past 20 years. They’ll also qualify for much bigger feed-in rates if they export in peak hours. Notice also the ‘solar sponge’ rate during the day, soon to be common in NSW. Where electricity will be incredibly cheap in the middle of the day, to use the huge surge of production from solar. A home battery would pay for itself quickly by charging during the day for night time use, even without solar. Or you could set an electric hot water heater to heat your hot water during the day instead of overnight.