The Queensland Government has been slammed after they moved to introduce legislation, that will force solar providers to install technology into solar systems that allows the state’s network operators to switch off solar batteries, it’s been described as an “outdated process”.
Some of the biggest names in the global solar and storage industry are up in arms and have moved to take on the Queensland Govertment who have been accused of trying to derail the state’s rooftop PV and home battery market according to One Step Off The Grid web site.
In a letter sent to Queensland energy minister Mick de Brenni, Companies such as Solar Edge, Enphase, Tesla, sonnen, Redback, SMA, Selectronic, and Fronius have called for an alternative approach.
The letter claims “The roll out will increase the cost of solar systems, potentially pushing up the cost of power to large consumers, compliance concerns, lack of functionality, the potential to damage consumer products as well as a risk of market disruption for solar and battery sales,”.
Set to be introduced in February 2023 the emergency backstop measure requires new and replacement rooftop solar and battery storage systems that are 10kW and over to be fitted with a basic generation signalling device that allows Queenslands network operators to switch these PV systems off, remotely, if needed.
Labor States such as Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia claim that they are looking to stop large amounts of daytime solar exports sending operational demand so low as to threaten system grid security.
The solar industry claim that Queensland, Australia’s most coal-dependent state – has opted to use mid-20th century technology for a 21st Century problem.
“While we recognise the need to act quickly in Queensland, we would recommend adopting the same approach as in South Australia,” the letter says, pointing to that state’s smart, software-based approach to solar switch-offs.
“We can collectively support Energy Queensland with an interim approach, similar to South Australia, where a registered agent receives a manual signal … and then uses [application programming interface] control functionality to manage all inverters within their portfolio,” the companies say.
“This alignment with the South Australian approach will reduce costs, increase compliance and could be applied retrospectively to a much larger pool of systems than just those after the proposed February start date.”
“Turning off an inverter in the middle of the day without any visibility by the network of the behind the meter load will not only stop any PV export, it will also introduce all of the behind the meter loads on the network that the system has been supplying,” the letter says.
“This procedure will not only create a significant load onto the network but could also create voltage stability issues.
