00:00It might not look like it, but Pippa Buchanan's house is in many ways a modern type of power
00:09plant.
00:10This is literally the beating heart of the system.
00:13A battery is attached to the wall of her garage at Kawarama, three hours south of Perth.
00:18The battery, in turn, charged by an array of solar panels on the roof above.
00:23Inside the house, the system largely runs everything from the lights and the oven to
00:27the fridge and the washing machine.
00:30What doesn't get used is exported.
00:32We probably are oversupplied for our current needs, like we've got a small child, she doesn't
00:38use that much energy.
00:40Like millions of other Australians, Pippa and her husband took the plunge and invested
00:45in solar, in their case, four years ago.
00:48But unlike most others, their arrangement is unusual.
00:51They're part of a so-called virtual power plant in which an energy company leases them
00:55solar panels and a battery.
00:57In return, there's a catch.
00:59When they need to, they can use our battery, either as storage or as supply to the grid,
01:07and they can also occasionally turn our solar panels off if they need to, if there's too
01:11much supply.
01:13Energy companies say the circumstances where solar needs to be spilled are rare, and households
01:18are forewarned and compensated.
01:20They say Australia's occasional overabundance of solar needs to be managed, and VPPs can
01:26help.
01:27When you install solar and battery in people's homes, they all individually have a power
01:31plant that can provide that exact same service.
01:35But they're too small individually.
01:38When you put them together, they can add up to something that's quite significant.
01:42Coordinating Australia's rapidly growing fleet of solar panels, batteries and other clean
01:47tech looms as a key plank and key challenge of the energy transition.
01:52Experts say it should be encouraged, particularly where households participate willingly.
01:57But they're warning against heavy-handedness.
02:00Building a network that is oriented around the customer is the issue, and it's really
02:06one that government needs to get a solid grip on.
02:09Trust is everything in the energy industry, and just generally with any brand trying to
02:14do business with customers.
02:16For Pippa Buchanan, the sacrifice is worth the rewards.
02:20It's a real privilege to be able to have solar panels, you know, to take advantage
02:25of the technology.
02:27But there's also a responsibility to the greater health of the grid.
02:32Through adaptation comes resilience.
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