January 26, 2023
Under the new standard, all home solar systems in South Australia will be required to enable dynamic remote management of the electricity quotas exported to the grid. South Australia is approaching a situation where solar electricity provides the electricity consumption
The SolarEdge company reported this week that its converters, installed in solar systems, are the first on the market to meet the requirements of a new reform planned to come into effect in the coming months in South Australia’s distributed electricity network. According to the new regulations, small private solar systems, whether on the roofs of houses or on the roofs of small businesses, must allow, on a technical level, the electricity grid operator to remotely update in real time, virtually through the cloud, the electricity quotas exported from the solar system to the regional electricity grid .
The reform (“Smarter Home Program”) is designed to enable managing the distributed electricity sector, which is powered mainly by solar panels, in a smart and dynamic manner according to demand levels and to prevent situations of excess supply, which may harm the grid, or too low supply resulting from rigid limits on the amount of electricity that can be exported from each editorial board. According to Solar-Edge, using its converter, which complies with the new standard, will allow the power producer to export to the power grid a 6 times greater amount of electricity, thus increasing the reward and ROI of the solar system. Systems that do not meet the requirements will be limited to a cap of only 1.5 kilowatts.
The solar electricity industry in South Australia is very developed. According to data from the end of 2020, as presented in a report prepared at the request of the local government by the operator of the regional electricity grid, AEMO, there were, as of that time, approximately 270,000 homes in the area that had installed solar panels on their roofs, as well as a growing number of small businesses. In total, the regional solar electricity sector produced about 200 megawatts per year, and according to AEMO’s estimate, within a few years the solar electricity production could fully satisfy the regional electricity consumption.
However, in the same report, AEMO stated that the growing reliance on electricity produced in a distributed manner will require technological changes in the way the electricity grid controls and manages the electricity quotas it exports from home solar systems. To this end, the new plan was drawn up, designed to enable dynamic management of the export quotas. According to Solar-Edge, its converters are the first on the market to receive certification and that they allow remote dynamic updating without the need to install an external controller.
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