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Grid & Infrastructure

Home battery owners earn two million dollars during Australian grid price spike

Unseasonal heat and power grid constraints sent electricity prices soaring in New South Wales, allowing residential battery owners to earn significant payouts by discharging power back to the grid.

FTMQ Climate, written by our newsroom0 views

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Unseasonal heat, coal generator outages, and transmission constraints caused electricity prices to surge in New South Wales on Monday, according to ABC News. Spot prices on the National Electricity Market reached a peak of $23,107 per megawatt hour around 3:30pm AEDT, approaching the market cap limit. [1]

The price surge created a two million dollar combined payout for home battery owners who discharged power into the grid during the event, ABC News reported. Wholesale electricity prices exceeded $5,000 per megawatt hour during 11 separate five-minute trading intervals. [1]

Residential battery owners discussed their earnings online, with one user reporting $100 earned in one hour by exporting 30 kilowatt hours of electricity, according to ABC News. A typical Australian household consumes between 15 and 20 kilowatt hours of power per day. [1]

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is the principal public broadcaster in Australia, operating national television, radio, and digital news services funded by federal tax revenue. [5]

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In short

  • Electricity prices in New South Wales peaked at $23,107 per megawatt hour.
  • Prices exceeded $5,000 per megawatt hour across 11 five-minute intervals.
  • Home battery owners earned a combined two million dollars supplying power during the price spike.

Sources

Every paragraph above points to the numbered items it rests on. Read the originals here.

  1. [1]$2m payday for home battery owners as heatwave catches grid off guard - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting CorporationGoogle News, 8h ago (the report this story comes from)
  2. [2]Australian Liberals have not agreed position on EU deal — ABC News AustraliaUA.NEWS, 21h ago
  3. [3]Market Analysts React to US-Israel Strikes on Iran - Energy News, Top Headlines, Commentaries, Features & EventsEnergyNow.com, 8h ago
  4. [4]PERSPECTIVE: Wind and Solar Have an Important Role - But They Are Energy “Diversification”, Not Energy “Transition” - Energy News, Top Headlines, Commentaries, Features & EventsEnergyNow.com, 1d ago

Background

  1. [5]Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wikipedia
  2. [6]ABC News (United States) on Wikipedia
  3. [7]Gervonta Davis on Wikipedia
  4. [8]Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Grokipedia

Our newsroom writes these reports with the help of software, from the 8 sources listed and nothing else, and checks them against those sources. Facts can still be wrong or move on; the originals are the record. Spotted a mistake? Write to daniel@monsterkong.com.

Earlier reports of ours on the same people and subjects.

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