The household battery revolution that could change energy bills … and the world
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/may/31/cheaper-energy-bills-battery-revolution-climate-crisisOpen linkView original on aussie.zonehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/may/31/cheaper-energy-bills-battery-revolution-climate-crisisOpen linkView original on aussie.zone
Our annual electricity bill is projected to drop by more than half thanks to our battery install - from ~$1200/yr to ~$550/yr.
Paired with an EV-friendly power plan (5c/kWh between 12am - 6am), we top up our home battery above 60% to ensure we have enough for the day ahead.
But honestly, the biggest cost-savings will comes from switching over to an EV - this battery/plan combo would save us upwards of $3K/yr in fuel costs.
My public utility energy company is now charging folks with solar and battery backups novel fees that makes their bill generally the same as they were prior to their new home energy system install.
I don't have solar or battery but it definitely cooled my dreams of having them.
Just go full island mode during the summer and disconnect from the grid. Then you can cancel your contract and start it again when winter comes.
Assuming they don’t develop a usurious reconnection fee.
They generally want customers, and offer cheaper plans to go with them for the first year, and that usage pattern is not going to be common
There’s a cost to maintaining the grid and it was easy to just charge a delivery or grid fee per kWh but with battery that doesn’t work, not unlike fuel taxes supporting roads (in theory).
I simply cannot go self sufficient with the space I have, so I would remain subject to the capricious nature of the energy company, which is a factor in my approach to installing solar and batteries. If they change policy, it changes my break-even, and I could be out thousands. As it stands I’m over 10 years payback, but my government at present is pro oil. It could go either way - new government introduced rebates, or existing government ends solar payouts.
In Australia, there is a split between generation and sales. You have generation-and-electrical-distribution companies, and then you have retailers who purchase MWh in bulk from those companies to resell to consumers. There is a market for electricity where the spot price varies wildly depending on what supply dominates at any particular time.
For the consumer this boils down to an infrastructure fee of approximately AUD 1.10 to 1.50 a day, and then metering is usually anywhere between 0 to 50 cents per kWh, both depending on your plan and the time of day.
So I can get plans where electricity costs me nothing at certain times of the day, but then costs me 60c/kWh from 4-9pm, so I set my EV to charge during the day and stop during that peak period. I can go and buy a battery and hand over control of it to the retailer, who can use it to balance their MWh purchases from generation. Then sometimes you can get $30 in a few hours during peak evening time from your retailer when "cheap bulk electricity" is absent and they can sell your battery energy on the spot market for $$$.
The whole system gives a lot of options, and while it's no doubt not the best solution, it's something workable for the future.
Yes we all understand there is cost to maintain the grid but I thought that was handled with base monthly rate before usage. Maybe wishful thinking.
Would like more info. What company? What charges?
Ameren. I am not an owner so I don't know the charges, but I've heard it from multiple people.
Where are they located? I suspect you may be being lied to.
Electrical companies can't just slap "novel charges" whenever they feel like it. The feed in tariff has dropped to piss-all, sure, but speaking as an aussie with a solar rig, there's a lot of
whingeingtalk about wanting to "bridge the shortfall" but not much action.Some states allow to charge for exporting during low demand, but a battery system would usually be hoovering that up anyway. We're talking like $5-$15 a year
Yeah I understand that impluse but I'm not in Australia and I apologize for veering out of Australian context with this community. I'm not being lied to.
You might want to amend your original comment to state "in my country" then