Hello, I’m currently in the process of acquiring a solar system for my house in NSW and I’ve found out that some locations have the amount you can export to the grid capped.
The information I’m finding about this is quite confusing and I can’t figure out what locations fall under this situation, so I’m hoping someone has any information about this, like specific postcodes/areas where the limits apply and how big of cap it is?
Any help is appreciated
Get in touch with whoever your electricity distributor is is in your region.
When installed my solar phoned up Essential Energy who is our regional electricity distributor. Once gave my address, looked it up and told me 3.5kW on my line. I have 3.24kW. You can oversize the system so you can actually put in near the maximum capacity of the allowable limit through out the day. I didn’t want to spread my system over two roof areas.
Following on from @Monica_D it would assist others to understand your enquiry if you could share which locality - suburb, township etc and whether the home is on a rural supply or major urban connection. Who is your current retailer?
There is no universal answer, hence the solution previously recommended by @Monica_D to talk with your existing network operator. If you don’t know who that is your electricity retailer can answer the question for you and possibly advise on solar PV for your home.
Out in the rural & remote areas, the pole & wires system was never designed to return power to the grid. A number of people we know have been told their system is only capable of carrying a certain wattage, and once that is taken up, new applications will have to pay to upgrade the line.
A Club I’m associated with did their homework about putting solar on the clubhouse roof, but were told the poles could only take 3.5kW, which another person promptly took up, denying the opportunity. My brother has a factory which is completely powered by solar and used to feed back a large amount, but his State has now limited the amount he can feed back into the grid. He and his employees now charge their electric cars for free and then power their homes at night. So a few different scenarios. Contact your electricity provider first.
For any solar installation in NSW, for urban areas there is now a 5kW export limit irrespective of the size of the installation. See:
There can also be localised export restrictions based on the local network configuration and number of existing solar generators which are grid connected. As @Monica_D, has indicated, it may be advantageous to approach the distribution network operator (NSW has three depending on where the residence is located) to determine is there are any specific restrictions in the local network comprising your residence. This may assist in providing options available to you.
When designing system sizing, it is generally no longer financially viable to rely on exported electricity to payback the capital cost of the system. Instead system should be designed to maximise use within the residence upstream of the meter. It generally means smaller systems designed to cover normal electricity use when the system is generating. A professional installer should be able to design a system which best meets your needs and consumption patterns.
