Uptake of a trial offer run by French renewables giant ENGIE and electricity distributor South Australia (SA) Power Networks, which rewards customers to help manage periodic oversupply of household rooftop solar energy, has doubled its cap of 50 households to 100.
The ARENA-funded, 12-month Solar Advantage trial was created as part of the Market Active Solar trial led by SA Power Networks, which aims to demonstrate how dynamic operating envelopes (DOEs) can work in tandem with retailer-initiated schemes to manage customer energy resources (CER) effectively.
ENGIE General Manager for Innovation Ryan Wavish said residential customers who have opted in to the trial offer allow ENGIE to adjust the amount of energy exported to the grid from their rooftop solar panels when there is too much supply, and prices are negative.
Wavish describes it as a win-win situation, given ENGIE (or any retailer), is not paying double for both customer solar feed in tariffs (FiTs), but also the cost of exporting power into a negative market when there is too much rooftop solar generation.
“At the same time, our customers are compensated more than they would’ve earned for exporting their excess solar power through solar feed-in tariffs,” Wavish said.
“The trial is going really well; our customers are loving it and we’ve had more than 40 customers opt-in so far.”
The trial was originally set at a limit of 50 participants in 2025, but due to its popularity the offer has been extended to a limit of 100 SA households.
“There has been a lot of discussion about the possibility of a “solar tax” – or households being charged for exporting their excess rooftop solar during periods of oversupply – but we are flipping this for customers,” Wavish said.
“This ARENA funded trial is proof that an innovative retailer like ENGIE can instead help customers earn money from their solar curtailment.”
Wavish added the solar curtailment in this context can be another win-win between the customer and the network as market led curtailment relieves congestion on the local grid and reduces the need for costly upgrades.
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