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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: The Spanish Grid Drop-out - recently released information.
Date: Mon, 12 May 2025 01:21:31 +1000
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On 11/05/2025 8:38 pm, Chris Jones wrote:
> On 11/05/2025 4:18 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
>>> I believe that there are some new regulations in at least one 
>>> Australian state, driven by the (fossil-fuel-stoked) fear of "too 
>>> much solar destabilising the grid", which require new home solar 
>>> inverters to stop exporting power, unless they receive continuous 
>>> "permission to export" signals from our overlords, the network 
>>> operators. 
>>
>> It is cruder than that. They've just stopped paying any realistic kind 
>> of feed-in tariff to people with roof-top solar, and as a result 40% 
>> of new roof-top solar in Australia is now being installed with Tesla 
>> Powerwall or similar battery. It more than doubles the cost of the 
>> installation, but reduces the pay-back time for the whole installation 
>> to about seven years, and save you negotiating with your power 
>> supplier about their derisory feed-in tariffs.
> 
> 
> No, they say:
> 
> "What happens if my solar inverter loses internet connectivity?
> 
> If your solar inverter loses internet connectivity, the excess energy 
> you export to the grid will automatically be reduced. This ensures it 
> can be safely managed."
> ( from here: 
> https://www.energy.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/701911/Emergency-backstop-customer-factsheet-June-2024.pdf )

What they say isn't all that interesting. What they do is discourage 
people from trying to sell their excess power back to the grid.

> So if all of the inverters lose internet, which is entirely likely at 
> some point bearing in mind our telcos, we can expect a blackout too, all 
> so that "it can be safely managed." The blackout will no doubt help the 
> telcos to get back online promptly. Fun times ahead.

I haven't lost my internet recently - the last time it happened it was 
not due to anything the telcos had done - the mains supply to my 
apartment block had to be cut off for hours while they replaced the 
local distribution transformer, which sits just outside our front gate, 
and it was entirely local. A few years back it dropped out for couple of 
hours due a  problem with my telco, but it only affected people served 
by that telco, and was confined to a single suburb.

The chance of all the inverters losing internet connectivity at once 
doesn't seem to be all that high.

-- 
Bil Sloman, Sydney