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info@gswitch.com.au
info@gswitch.com.au
Most households would never think about the price of power or how energy is actually charged, they just accept and go along with it. But what if there was a way to buy cheaper power? It may seem highly unlikely, even unrealistic, but buying wholesale energy is a very real proposition.
All energy retailers buy their electricity from the wholesale electricity market. Prices are set every 30 minutes by the Australian Energy Market Operator. These prices are now readily available for most states. So how can your get cheaper power?
When there is excess wind and solar power being generated into the grid, wholesale prices are typically low.
By shifting some of your energy usage to times when cheaper, renewable energy is available, you can save hundreds of dollars. There are a few retailers that offer wholesale pricing and the Gswitch works with all retailers offering this type of model.
This graph depicts a typical day when there is an excess of solar available in the market. The dotted line in the middle of the graph highlights the 30 minute spot price has dropped to a negative amount, (-$58.01 Mwh or 5.8 cents per Kwh) which means you will be getting paid for using your power, at the rate of 5.8 cent per kilowatt.
Gswitch is programmed to anticipate this event and will turn on your appliances, to achieve the cheapest possible power for you. In this situation you are getting paid to heat your hot water, run your pool pump, charge your electric vehicle (EV) or heat and cool your house.
Gswitch is a smart Home Energy Management System so therefore there is no need to be watching the market fluctuations. Gswitch is programmed to react and get your power cheaper.
Currently this customer is on a demand tariff with no solar PV and the graph shows the real time power cost is 3.8 cents per Kwh including network charges.
The price is low due to the over supply of solar and wind to the network. You are potentially your trading power with the wholesale market. You are taking advantage of other peoples investment in solar PV.
Wholesale spot price can range from $1 to $14 per kilowatt. While these prices are rare they can happen in times of natural disasters, or when a coal fired generator is offline due to a fault. The Gswitch will protect the household from these extraordinary events by either turning off your appliances or slowing them down.
If your solar is generating at the time of a high market price, you can earn the current market rate. The Gswitch detects the high price and switches off your controlled loads so your generation is exported to the grid and you will be paid up to $14 per Kwh.
In Brisbane prices above $3 are less than .01% that equates to 18 x 30 min intervals per year. The average spot price for generation in SE QLD in 2021 is 3.6 cents.
There is a distinct shift happening in the way power is made, as Coal Fired Generators are being made redundant, Renewables are taking over, but the downside to this is that it causes instability to the energy grid. This in turn brings about unpredictable variation in the energy market price.
South Australia is a very good example of this. In Sept 2019 the average price for power was negative for 137, 30 min intervals, which equates to approx. 2.5 hours per day. During these times having a Gswitch installed would automatically switch your household appliances on to make you money.
Gswitch literally, pays for itself and this is just one way in which it achieves an ROI in approx. 2-3 years.
