1 Introduction There is only one boss. The customer. And [they] can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending [their] money somewhere else. –Sam Walton: Made in America, My Story, with J. Huey (1990) More so than anywhere else in the world, Australia’s electricity customers are choosing to spend their money on rooftop solar PV systems. There is a worrying trend in Australia, however, to limit customers’ PV connection, generation, and export due to the real and perceived limits of the low-voltage distribution network. The limits placed on solar connections result from the fact that the electricity network has physical limits that, if breached, damage customer and network equipment and endanger safety. While these limits, also known as network hosting capacity, are knowable, they are for the most part unknown within the low-voltage distribution network. This lack of knowledge predisposes network businesses to act more conservatively than they would with greater awareness of the true limits. The result is a lower overall utilisation of existing network infrastructure, greater costs, and reduced control by customers over their energy usage. Table 1-1--DNSP LV network visibility (DNSPs surveyed by the AEMC and ENA in 2019)
Bar and value indicate level of visibility; upward arrow indicates increasing trend. Source: image from AEMO, Renewable Integration Study Stage 1 Appendix A: High Penetrations of Distributed Solar PV, 2020. Derived from detailed DNSP responses to AEMC LV network visibility survey.
There is, of course, another path. Customers’ solar, batteries, flexible appliances, and electric vehicles (collectively referred to as distributed energy resources – DER) can be effectively integrated into the distribution system. Through their intelligent operation, they can actually enable the network to host additional customer DER and provide a number of
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