The rise of rooftop solar power in Australia is seen as a great success story. But with so much solar power now available authorities want emergency powers to reduce output when it threatens to overload the energy grid. Some solar owners are in favour of the proposal even signing up to schemes that would allow their solar panels to be remotely manipulated at times of grid stress.
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00:00It might not look like it, but Pippa Buchanan's house is in many ways a modern type of power
00:09plant.
00:10This is literally the beating heart of the system.
00:13A battery is attached to the wall of her garage at Kawarama, three hours south of Perth.
00:18The battery, in turn, charged by an array of solar panels on the roof above.
00:23Inside the house, the system largely runs everything from the lights and the oven to
00:27the fridge and the washing machine.
00:30What doesn't get used is exported.
00:32We probably are oversupplied for our current needs, like we've got a small child, she doesn't
00:38use that much energy.
00:40Like millions of other Australians, Pippa and her husband took the plunge and invested
00:45in solar, in their case, four years ago.
00:48But unlike most others, their arrangement is unusual.
00:51They're part of a so-called virtual power plant in which an energy company leases them
00:55solar panels and a battery.
00:57In return, there's a catch.
00:59When they need to, they can use our battery, either as storage or as supply to the grid,
01:07and they can also occasionally turn our solar panels off if they need to, if there's too
01:11much supply.
01:13Energy companies say the circumstances where solar needs to be spilled are rare, and households
01:18are forewarned and compensated.
01:20They say Australia's occasional overabundance of solar needs to be managed, and VPPs can
01:26help.
01:27When you install solar and battery in people's homes, they all individually have a power
01:31plant that can provide that exact same service.
01:35But they're too small individually.
01:38When you put them together, they can add up to something that's quite significant.
01:42Coordinating Australia's rapidly growing fleet of solar panels, batteries and other clean
01:47tech looms as a key plank and key challenge of the energy transition.
01:52Experts say it should be encouraged, particularly where households participate willingly.
01:57But they're warning against heavy-handedness.
02:00Building a network that is oriented around the customer is the issue, and it's really
02:06one that government needs to get a solid grip on.
02:09Trust is everything in the energy industry, and just generally with any brand trying to
02:14do business with customers.
02:16For Pippa Buchanan, the sacrifice is worth the rewards.
02:20It's a real privilege to be able to have solar panels, you know, to take advantage
02:25of the technology.
02:27But there's also a responsibility to the greater health of the grid.
02:32Through adaptation comes resilience.