Solar Citizens proposes a comprehensive rethink of the National Electricity Market (NEM) which could deliver benefits worth $19 billion by 2040, in its submission to a Federal review of the National Energy Wholesale Market (also known as the ‘Nelson Review’).
The Solar Citizens submission, prepared by leading energy expert Dr Gabrielle Kuiper, calls for greater consumer participation in the wholesale and other energy markets through greater aggregation of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) such as home generated solar power, home batteries and electric vehicles.
Solar Citizens CEO Heidi Lee Douglas said:
“By allowing energy consumers who have rooftop solar, batteries and smart appliances to participate in energy markets as generators, storage providers and engaging in flexible demand, Australian households can bring down costs for everyone across our energy systems. There are already nearly four million installations of solar households in Australia, that’s a massive scale of energy generation.
“We’ve seen early examples of this through Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) that coordinate household batteries, but the Nelson Review provides an opportunity to unlock even greater value.”
Dr Kuiper said: “Better integration of distributed energy resources has the potential to provide the National Energy Market with $19 billion of benefits by 2040, including $11 billion in reduced transmission and distribution costs and $8 billion in reduced large-scale generation and storage costs.”
“Our recommendations would see households fairly compensated for their contributions and drive down energy bills for everyone. They will unlock the benefits of rooftop solar, household batteries, bi-directional charging and demand management technologies for many more households,” concluded Ms Douglas.
Read the submission to the National Energy Market (NEM) Wholesale Market Settings Review