The standardised guidelines aim, in particular, to govern the “safe, consistent and efficient” installation of rooftop solar and storage across Australia’s National Electricity Market.
The guidelines come as rooftop solar continues to boom in Australia – and just over a year after standardising and streamlining solar and storage connection was identified as a key priority by networks, customers and industry stakeholders.
The Finkel Review also identified a number of challenges associated with integration of distributed energy resources (DER), which would require modernised connection standards and uniform control mechanisms to strengthen system security.In comments on Thursday, ENA CEO Andrew Dillon said the guidelines – in this case targeting low voltage installations – were principally about safe, consistent and efficient grid connections to help reduce costs for networks and customers.
“With so many households embracing solar and new personalised energy sources, these guidelines will ensure connection processes are streamlined and consistently applied across all jurisdictions,” he said.
ENA said work was underway to produce the next set of guidelines to address medium voltage (MV) and high voltage (HV) connections within the distribution system. These guidelines are expected to be released later this year.
