Whilst I often call a spade a spade and generally suffer from immense frustration with utility attitudes to solar, I have to give credit where credit is due.
The next time you bump into the CEO’s of Queensland’s Ergon Energy or Energex, shout them a beer and thank them.
You would be aware that these companies have been working towards the implementation of a Reactive Power Control requirement for Queensland. As I have said before, this requirement is a good idea in principle and can genuinely alleviate some of the challenges that can occur with high levels of solar penetration. However, I have been very critical about the lack of coordination with National standards addressing the same issue, the unintended negative consequences for particular technologies and a blanket approach to what are often isolated issues. Whilst industry consultation did take place, the concerns of some parts of the industry appeared to being completely ignored.
The deployment of this regulation left some of our industry in an extremely difficult position. In a nutshell a lot of solar inverter manufacturers were simply unable to re-engineer their products in the timeline required, which was an acceleration of the timeline inferred in the National standards. The consequences were obvious; dead-stock, regional product variation, and in some cases well intentioned business models that could needlessly be rendered obsolete. The potential for solar businesses collapsing was entirely possible and at a minimum time and money would be wasted.
However, today’s announcement by Ergon Energy and Energex is living proof that utilities can and do listen. By revising the implementation date to September 2015 industry has a realistic chance to make the changes required and minimise the negative consequences. It’s an important olive branch extended by key utilities in one of the countries largest solar States and a great example of genuine collaboration between the solar industry. I wrote recently about how Hawaiian utilities had found multi million dollar savings by taking a similar collaborative approach and leveraging the innovative solutions that are available today, and it’s fantastic to see it happening here too.
Now its fair to say that this (final) revision to the implementation date has been hard fought.
Logically, those who were most impacted fought hardest, and no-one more so than Grant Behrendorff from the AC Solar Warehouse. Behrendorff has been in solar for decades and was a pioneer in using off grid solar when he worked for a utility in Queensland, years ago. He’s witnessed the evolution of solar from almost every perspective and fascinatingly, reached the conclusion that micro-inverter based AC solar modules were in his view “superior from almost every perspective” so he built a specialist business around it. However, being on the leading edge of this new technological solution left his growing business hugely exposed. In a classic example of the power of the individual, Behrendorff spent his own time and money directly negotiating at the most senior levels. Enphase Energy who have some of the most innovative micro inverters in the world have demonstrated their willingness to collaborate in Hawaii and were also heavily involved in trying to amicably resolve this issue.
Notably, there was little evidence of other affected micro-inverter manufacturers investing time or money in such a battle; happy to take but give nothing back to the industry it seems?
If you sell micro-inverters in Queensland, you have Behrendorff his business partners and Enphase Energy to thank.
As Australia inevitably reaches higher and higher levels of solar grid penetration, genuine collaboration is essential for our combined mutual success and if you think reactive power was a big one, just wait till storage gets a head of steam.
The rules, regulations, standards and tariffs are already being debated locally. At the highest level, the AER has an issues paper out right now looking at this very issue. In my world, I reckon I spend 50% of my time on this issue helping manufacturers, retailers and installers understand the technology and developing great products that suit our markets needs. Internationally, there has been a massive amount of work in many countries who are already ahead of us too.
On the downside, the complexities and potential consequences are staggering, far bigger than any issue we have faced so far in our industry. On the plus side, the costs, performance levels and problems that storage can solve are impressive – provided they can be realised.
I’m going to take this olive branch at face value as a sign that our utilities are genuinely willing to collaborate and I commend Energex and Ergon Energy for listening to industry concerns. One of the primary keys to effective collaboration is finding common goals. We won’t always agree on things, but there are things we will have in common and by working together on them, we both benefit.
Soooooo……When can we meet to talk about storage fella’s?
Post expires at 11:35am on Friday February 12th, 2016