VPP

[Bud]

Hi all, I am in Adelaide and I am eligible for the VPP project (subsidised battery).  I wish to communicate with someone who already has a battery installed. I have questions about AGL's right to access the battery for their use. The contract appears to give AGL carte blanche, and this worries me because it may not be in the best interests of the consumer i.e. AGL has priority to access the battery for their use whenever they want. In such event the consumer is subsidising AGL. It appears that the contract is very one-sided.

[Woodunn]

Hi Bud,

             Not sure if it is too late but feel free to pm me.  We have had our VPP in for nearly two months and have not had any events when AGL have manipulated the VPP other than changing the depth of discharge in preperation for poor weather.

I thought we had a couple of events earlier this month but it turned out to be the VPP shutting down due to over voltage from the grid (still being investigated)

Ron

[Bud]

Hi Woodun,

Thank you for replying. Things have been moving slowly but now the new batteries have been publicised (Tesla and LG) and I am finalising my pre-installation research. I have been in discussion with the AGL VPP/battery group and have been told that AGL only intend to access the batteries on rare “special events”. They were unable to be more specific. Are you able to add any further light on this now that you’ve had your battery running for a few months?

I am also concerned about AGL’s ability to remotely adjust depth of discharge. Obviously this would reduce the battery’s rated capacity. Can the consumer manually over-ride this?

[Woodunn]

Hi Bud,

           Since our installation last August we have had one event. 

We received notification on the Solar command website in the morning that we will be part of an "event" from between 4:30 and 5:30pm on the 19th of January.  It read

"This event may involve discharging some of the stored energy in your battery. Solar self-consumption will operate as usual at all other times"

This is the first and only one since our installation in August last year.

At 5pm that day, our VPP started exporting 3.5kwh and is slowly rolling off at 5:45pm. Battery dropped from 92% down about to around 67%.
At this time our house was still being powered by our PV even with the A/C on. 

This was a hot day where the national grid was under a bit of load.

It all worked as advised to us when we were investigating the system.

This has been the only event in the 7 months we have had our system.
https://imgur.com/8nPYmD8

[Buckster]

what feed in tariff did they credit you with?

[Richard]

Hi Bud. I’m a retired electrical engineer and have written at length on the VPP. I would recommend you read my articles, particularly on the pinned article on the benefits of solar panels, and the one that shows our VPP battery has cost us money so far. I wouldn’t have believed it until I did the analysis.  If you really want a battery to back up a few lights and a fridge during an outage then the VPP is a good idea. If you want to save money, panels only are a better solution based on the data I have analysed over the last 5 years. 

[Richard]

Hi Bud, I’m currently touring WA but I’d be happy to talk to you if you want to ring me on 0429204020. 

I’m in Broome today so I’ll be contactable later this afternoon or this evening. 

Cheers,

Richard