Battery Storage - future of the power grid

[anthonys4691]

With coal power eventually being phased out power generators have few if any options but to install MANY large scale batteries (the battery set up in South Australia will run the Tomago Aluminium Smelter outside of Newcastle NSW for a whole 8 minutes, yep folks thats 8 minutes not 8 hours) or have the equivalent storage spread out over many 100,000's of batteries installed in homes.

Personally I think the smarter of the two is to have all homes connected to solar and batteries to provide the power to the grid (replacing the coal fired power stations or future green energy projects that the generators would have had to pay for ) so why am I going to pay for infrastructure that the generators would have been forced to pay for when coal is phased out ?

If AGL want to rely on the solar I have generated being there when the grid wants it to be there then supply and install a battery free of charge as I an dam sure I wont be paid top dollar for the power utilised from my stored generation.

So AGL pays for the install and then I am happy for AGL to draw from storage OR

I pay for the installation and I charge the FULL price for the power OR

we work off NET metering so every Kilowatt generated exactly compensates every kilowatt I consume.

Please explain why I should pay for batteries so someone else can use the power that AGL profits from supplying.

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[Schander · Accepted solution]

Hi Anthonys4691,

In the current scenario, for a residential house, the solar power with batteries means it charges the battery until sunset and the residential house begins to draw from the battery and feeds the household consumption.

In this scenario, no power from the battery would feed the grid.  Hypothetically, if the battery was fully charged (unlikely), then the excess energy generated by solar power could feed the grid (if not the battery).

The reason you would pay for solar batteries is to try to cease the reliance on the grid during hours of less sunlight (hence minimising the consumption from the grid).  I'm not aware of a scenario where the battery feeds the grid in a residential household.  Or did I err in my understanding?

Regards,

Schander