Antinuclear

“Grow your own and buy local”: Networks seek change and flexibility to manage a 100 pct renewable grid

RENEW ECONOMY. Giles Parkinson, Mar 19, 2026

The head of Australia’s peak network group has called for regulatory change and more flexibility for homes and their power assets, to help local networks manage the consumer-driven push towards 100 per cent renewables across the country.

Andrew Bills is the chair of Energy Networks Australia, and finds himself at the cutting edge of this transition as CEO of SA Power Networks, where the output of rooftop solar alone exceeds grid demand about every second day of the year.

South Australia is expected – within 18 months – to become the first gigawatt-scale grid in the world to reach 100 per cent “net” renewables (the net refers to the fact that it imports and exports at times and is not an isolated grid), and is already running at a 75 per cent share of wind and solar.

Much of that solar comes from households, with nearly half (48 pct) of all homes supporting a total of 3.2 gigawatts of rooftop solar capacity, which is significant in a grid with average demand less than half of that.

That solar penetration is also world leading, and at a level that stuns network peers in other countries. It is rapidly being followed by a faster uptake of home batteries (double that of the country average), and a growing interest in electric vehicles.

This has required South Australia to be at the forefront of key technologies designed manage this home energy revolution, initially with the blunt and rarely used “solar switch-off”, required by the market operator as a last resort to help maintain grid security.

That has been followed, more successfully, by the rollout of innovative technologies that allow for flexible exports for solar households, and no longer limits the amount of rooftop solar that can be installed.

iis now being augmented with the trial installation of home energy management systems and tariffs that reward homes for cutting imports, as well as exports, at key times………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://reneweconomy.com.au/grow-your-own-and-buy-local-networks-seek-change-and-flexibility-to-manage-a-100-pct-renewable-grid/

March 21, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | energy