Fury At Proposal To Strip Feed-In Tariff to Battery Customers

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Proposal to strip feed-in tariff to customers with battery energy storage systems seen as hypocritical and childish.

According to a submission to the Queensland Productivity Commission electricity pricing inquiry, Energex wants to strip their customer’s eligibility for the 44¢/kWh tariff if they install Battery Energy Storage Systems. A move which if granted would affect approximately 265,000 households.

The incentive to encourage homeowners to fit PV systems, has seen wide support in Queensland and many hundreds of thousands of solar owner are furious by Energex’s proposal which would see them losing their feed-in tariff.

Solar Citizens co-ordinator and Brisbane resident, John Sheehan said the proposal by Energex would unfairly penalised individuals and undermined the State Government’s own target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

Adding, the move would discourage people from installing Energy storage batteries until the bonus scheme ended 12 years from now.

“Energex’s action in proposing to block homes from installing batteries conflicts with their rhetoric about price signals and reducing peak loads. It’s hypocritical and a bit childish really.’’

Mr Sheehan speculated that the distributor was concerned that batteries would reduce evening peak demand — and reduce the amount power companies could charge under planned demand-based tariffs.

The Palaszczuk Government says battery storage was not envisaged when the solar bonus scheme was introduced. But it was not ruling Energex’s proposal in or out at this stage and would carefully consider it along with other recommendations after the Queensland Productivity Commission released its report in mid-February.

Mark Bailey, Queensland Energy Minister said: “Currently there is nothing to stop the installation of a battery alongside a solar PV system that receives the solar bonus.”

For it’s part Energex argues the increased ability to keep large amounts of power for release back into the network would give those solar householders on the top rate an unfair advantage which was never intended by the bonus scheme.

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