Behind the meter

About 45 per cent of electricity supply capacity is expected to be "behind the meter" by 2040 in the form of solar panels, batteries, electric vehicle chargers and smart software that can send power back to the grid at peak demand times to prevent blackouts, Bloomberg New Energy Finance says.

But Power Ledger chief executive David Martin said under current rules one homeowner wanting to sell surplus energy to a neighbour must utilise a retailer, which may charge a hefty transmission and distribution fee for using a tiny part of the network.

Not all retailers exploit this position. Powershop launched a service last year in which it buys surplus energy from solar household customers at a 4¢ premium to the regular feed-in-tariff and sells it to other customers at a the same premium to its grid tpower ariff.

Wholesale power users have a tariff that excludes the local distribution network and only charges them for their use of the transmission - or backbone - network.

Demand Response, batteries, solar panels and wind will dominate electricity investment over the next two decades, Bloomberg New Energy Finance's New Energy Outlook 2017 projects Bloomberg New Energy Finance, New Energy Outlook 2017

But Mr Martin said there was no complementary "distribution only" network charge for transactions that only use the local distribution network, a discrepancy that reflects the traditional centralised grid model which is evolving into a decentralised grid with lots of distributed energy sources.

"The regulatory challenge is identifying or proposing a reasonable charging regime which reflects the value of the small proportion of the network that is being used in the transaction," he said.


Important social asset

Mr Martin didn't blame the rule maker, the Australian Energy Markets Commission, saying it had had to respond to rapidly changing technology with a rule making process that was designed to be "considered and slow and informed".

The AEMC was struggling to catch up, he said, but it was important to find a charging regime that encouraged households to stay connected and use the grid because it is "an important social asset" relied on by less well-off people especially.

The Origin customer data is "anonymised" and untraceable. Tony Lucas, Origin executive general manager, Future Energy said Power Ledger was one of the emerging technologies the company is exploring to help meet the changing needs of our customers.

"While it's still fairly early days for this technology, we are keen to explore the potential benefits that peer-to-peer energy trading could offer our customers," Mr Lucas said

"We hope the trial will help us better understand the value proposition for consumers, as well as the regulatory and technical implications of the peer-to-peer trading model."