Power Provider in Australia is Subsidising Tesla Battery Packs

[NathanBerry]

A buddy of mine sent me this yesterday. The South Australia electricity provider wants to help pay for battery packs to avoid a costly $3m upgrade to their electricity system.

Here's some of the article:

"Homeowners in Adelaide's north are being targeted for Australia's largest suburban trial of power-storage batteries.

• SA Power Networks will take customers off grid to avoid an expensive network upgrade
• 100 customers in Salisbury will be selected to trial batteries
• Batteries combine with solar to power homes around the clock

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-1...-trial/7426634

SA Power Networks wants to recruit 100 customers at Salisbury to purchase a heavily subsidised home storage battery, as the power distributor attempts to avoid a $3 million network upgrade."

Thoughts??

[rsilvers]

It would be cool to have the battery, but not if you have to go off-grid. What if I need a lot of power for something?

[ButchDeal]

It would be cool to have the battery, but not if you have to go off-grid. What if I need a lot of power for something?

I don't think it is actually taking them off grid as the systems are not rated for that and the sizes they talk about do not support off grid. It sounds like simply a grid zero configuration, likely with some grid control of battery usage .

[rsilvers]

How can one go off-grid with a maximum of 3kW of solar panels?

[ButchDeal]

My point ...

[rsilvers]

The article actually says: Key points:

• SA Power Networks will take customers off grid to avoid an expensive network upgrade.

[ButchDeal]

So you are looking for technical accuracy in a fluf news article

[rsilvers]

So basically, one is buying a UPS for $3600. It would be great if they get the free solar panels, but if I had solar panels already and were offered Tesla batteries for $3600 each, I don't think I would do that. I would put the money toward a generator.

From the customer point of view, it is better to use the grid as a battery, and then have a generator for natural disaster style outages.

[rsilvers]

My friend spent $8500 for batteries for his on-grid 12.48kW system just so that he would have a whole-house UPS and he doesn't even have a generator so he cannot sustain a prolonged outage. Not something I would do.

[ButchDeal]

a 12kw whole house backup is silly, and likely not accurate. It would be very costly with little gain, huge batteries and cost considerably more than $8.5k.
Most would have an emergency panel, such that only that is backed up. This is much more reasonable in cost and engineering.

[rsilvers]

I looked back at his quote, and it said this:

"Adding the battery backup system that we discussed (800 AmpHrs of battery life that can power approx. 3 circuits and can run for approximately 2 days with intermittent loads, and longer if the sun is shining) would add $9,850."

He opted to do it. They can store $20 worth of power if you run them down to 0.

[wes@SH]

He would need 3000AH@48volts to backup a 12kw system entirely for 2 days of autonomy. That 3 circuits is the emergency panel, but I would advise him not to run it down to zero-800AH for 8k is probably AGM batteries and needs to be limited to 50% discharge.

[SunEagle]

I don't think it is actually taking them off grid as the systems are not rated for that and the sizes they talk about do not support off grid. It sounds like simply a grid zero configuration, likely with some grid control of battery usage .

While I have not read that particular news cast I did read one concerning Hawaii where they want to do something similar and help pay for home battery systems but the POCO will definitely have control over the battery system to help stabilize the grid when necessary.

[ButchDeal]

exactly what I suspect is going on here.