2b8970f1b7e89431fa235fab06773ed7
© 2024 The Illawarra Flame
10 min read
Speaking to power

The University of Wollongong’s Ty Christopher has a cost-cutting clean energy message he says we should be “screaming from the rooftops”.

It’s been lost as election-bound politicians debate our electricity mix decades into the future and the Australian Energy Market Operator calls for emergency powers to switch off the country’s biggest success story, the four million households with solar panels.

But Ty – appointed Energy Futures Network Director after ending four decades in industry as the ‘chief engineer’ at Endeavour Energy – said there is an immediate, locally proven solution that could bring bill relief to families.

“If we have a situation where we have too much solar generating during the middle of the day, why don’t we just turn all our hot-water systems on during the middle of the day and use our hot water as a thermal battery?” he said.

“It’s literally just changing settings on a computer … You could implement that across the entire grid within days.”

So why isn’t the switch being flicked?

Ty claims a mix of corporate greed and outdated governance structures is slowing action, with hot water traditionally heated at night. “The off-peak times and tariffs are determined by the big gentailers – the big three, Origin, AGL and Energy Australia – who own the coal- and gas-fired power stations and retail electricity to you.

“So why would they want to see your hot water heated from your solar during the middle of the day, when they can make sure that your hot water is heated from burning their coal- and gas-fired power plants through the middle of the night?

“These are companies that make billions of dollars of profit. And that profit comes from one place and one place only – and that is out of the pockets of each and every one of us as energy consumers.”

To those who feel ripped off, Ty says: “You should feel ripped off.

“AEMO should be calling for far more storage in the grid and for the ability to have influence over when that storage is filled up and discharged.”

Smart meters were installed at 2500 homes in Albion Park as part of a 'solar soaker' trial in 2021. Photo: Endeavour Energy

Solar Soaker trial a ‘huge success’

Hot-water systems as thermal batteries is a proven success story, Ty said, pointing to a ‘Solar Soaker’ trial in Albion Park run three years ago by his former employer, Endeavour Energy, the local ‘poles and wires’ business that's moving to become a distributed system operator. 

“If it’s such a huge success as a pilot, why isn’t it being implemented at scale? Why? Because it will cost the big gentailers money.”

A spokesperson for Endeavour Energy described its Off Peak Plus program launched in May 2021 as “world leading”. To manage peak demand, it enabled ‘solar soaking’ – where excess solar generated from residential rooftops can be used locally by neighbours to heat their hot-water systems.  

“The trial involved a partnership between Endeavour Energy, 10 energy retailers and smart metering company Intellihub,” the spokesperson said.

“It involved the installation of smart meters at 2500 homes across Albion Park instead of the upgrade of a 50-year old, off-peak control system at Endeavour Energy’s nearby substation.  

“The installed smart meters dynamically controlled hot-water systems, switching them on during the day when surplus power is being generated from rooftop solar within the neighbourhood and allowing them to heat during the day when there is an over-supply of electricity in the market. 

"This reduces electricity costs for customers and captures excess solar generation."

The spokesperson said ‘solar soaking’ has had “remarkable” benefits, including cutting customer costs and carbon emissions, managing peak demand and improving network performance, so more solar can safely feed into the grid.

“On sunny days, over 40% of the hot-water tank heating can be via clean local renewable energy … this also allows more residential solar to connect and export into the grid.

“We know the technology works and have applied it to five other zone substations Penrith, Westmead, Marsden Park and areas surrounding Western Sydney Airport. We are also working with multiple retailers to introduce the benefits of this technology for customers who now have smart meters.

“The initiative required unique regulatory approval by the Australian Energy Regulator, as under the rules metering upgrades can’t be initiated by Electricity Networks in NSW, unless the meter fails with the replacement needing to be led by a retailer.”

The spokesperson said the program is inspiring “policy change at a national level”.

So what's AEMO doing to boost storage and will it enable thermal batteries?

AEMO was contacted for comment but did not respond.

Dr Saul Griffith at the Electrify 2515 Community Pilot launch. Photo: Jeremy Park

Community steps up

The Electrify 2515 Community Pilot launched in Thirroul last month with a huge groundswell of local support – 600 people rolled up to Anita’s Theatre on a Sunday afternoon to hear Rewiring Australia co-founder Dr Saul Griffith and his team talk about home electrification.

“The biggest change that’s ever occurred in the energy industry has occurred through people power, not through the big corporates taking action – and that’s solar on homes,” said Ty. “That’s something to be harnessed. I think it's something that the 2515 program really taps into at a social and even emotional level.”

As part of the two-year Community Pilot, 500 households will receive subsidies to upgrade to electric hot-water systems, air-conditioners and cooktops, and to install household batteries. Everyone who takes part will receive a free smart energy device to gather data. The research will be done in partnership with Endeavour Energy and its network operations manager, Ben Dufty, was confident local infrastructure could cope.

“Are we going to blow up the grid?” an audience member at the launch asked. “The answer is no,” Ben said. “There’s been plenty of modelling done in the background to actually understand what the theoretical impacts of these changes on our grid will have.”

Electrify 2515 supporter Rachel, next to the tank that forms part of her home's heat pump, which runs off solar power. Also pictured is Toby, who is pretty excited by anything that keeps him cosy! Rachel featured in July 2024's article, Rooftop solar is the people’s revolution

Calls for change

Experts have been calling for market reform for some time, saying the rules need to catch up to today’s reality.

In July, Ty and Rewiring Australia’s Dr Vikki McLeod jointly wrote an opinion piece titled Electricity Regulation – Kicking goals or killing time before the bell?, explaining the complexities of our energy market and the rules that govern it. “These rules,” they wrote, “were optimised for the old fossil-fuelled economy, and they are not keeping pace with the clean energy transition.”

News that AEMO would like emergency powers dropped in early December – traditionally a time when people everywhere like to bury bad news in the rush to Christmas.

It’s a call that comes at the end of a financially painful year for many families and small businesses burdened with the rising cost of everything: mortgages, materials, labour and electricity.

In condemning AEMO’s wish for permission to switch off everyone’s solar, Ty said the mindset behind it is wrong. “What we are dealing with here is AEMO are applying 20th century thinking to a 21st century grid. Our grid does not have too much or even too little generation.

“What our grid has is not enough storage, and that’s the real thing that AEMO should be focusing on, instead of wanting to be the master in control, and having this mindset of our solar’s a problem, so turn it off.”

Future storage will involve batteries of all types and sizes, he said. “Multiple batteries across all levels of the grid are what’s needed, including batteries such as gravity-based storage – like Green Gravity.”

Lord Mayor Tania Brown and Green Gravity CEO Mark Swinnerton. Photo: Genevieve Swart

Rise of Green Gravity

Green Gravity is a home-grown innovator, entering the energy storage field as demand soars. At a December media call at its Gravity Lab – an old shed in Port Kembla's steelworks complex – Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown celebrated the company's plans to repurpose old mine shafts by lifting and lowering weights to store and release energy, describing the business as “good for the region”.

Green Gravity is working on large-scale storage, with the old shaft at Russell Vale potentially capable of powering a suburb.

CEO Mark Swinnerton told the Flame gravitational energy storage is shaping up to be cheaper and more sustainable than chemical batteries. “We have no waste because we don’t use any fuel, and gravity’s free and waste free,” Mark said. “In calendar 2025, we’re going to complete production testing in mine shafts and be ready for first sales at the end of the year.

“Solar needs storage. And so I see our future as very bright.

“We’d like to double the team this next year.”

In September's article, Tradies: Heroes of our Homes, Electrify 2515's Kristen McDonald thanked the local electrician who helped time her hot-water system to maximise daytime solar production. "This simple act reduced energy bills by about 35% for our household of five." Photo: AG Solar

Market reform required

Ty remains critical of AEMO’s “slow thinking”.

“AEMO have had 15 years to work out how to operate the grid with widespread solar being part of the operating dynamic – they’ve been asleep at the wheel for that entire 15 years,” he said.

Operating costs at AEMO – the organisation managing electricity and gas systems and markets – are funded by fees paid by “market participants”.

“Market participants is code for the big generators and the big retailers, all the companies whose financial best interests are vested 100% in preserving the status quo and not looking to move with the times and move with the 21st century grid,” Ty said.

“Forty percent of AEMO’s funding comes from ‘market participants’.”

Ty sees a conflict of interest created by governance structures and questions whether, in controlling the grid, AEMO is looking after consumers’ interests or corporate interests.

“They would claim they’re balancing those two. I would contend that they haven’t got that balance right.”

Residents wanting to use their hot-water systems as thermal batteries can do so, but it will involve paying an electrician to set up a time switch and contacting their energy provider to withdraw from off-peak tariffs.

“But that’s more expense for you as a consumer,” Ty said. “When it could be done remotely and not cost you anything.”


Read more

The Electrify 2515 team have put together a Hot Water Guide, explaining different systems, government rebates, price points and accredited installers.

Read more local solar stories in Electrify 2515: A postcard from the future by Dr Saul Griffith and From volunteer to pilot manager: John Buchelin shares an electrifying journey. Heading off on holidays? Check out the entry on Range Anxiety in Peter Aubourg’s Diary of an EV Driver.