Alice Springs Future Grid is trialing the Northern Territory’s first residential Virtual Power Plant (VPP). The Solar Connect VPP trial is exploring how a VPP in Alice Springs could help keep the grid stable while increasing the amount of clean energy in the local power system.
The trial was launched in October 2022 by NT Minister for Renewables and Energy Selena Uibo, along with Minster for Desert Knowledge Australia, Chansey Paech.
What is a Virtual Power Plant?
A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is typically a collection of solar and battery storage systems that are treated like a single source of energy. VPPs use smart technology to control the energy flow to and from the grid on demand – benefitting the household, grid and the community.
Why Virtual Power Plants?
Solar power has become very popular in our town. However, on bright sunny days, when solar panels are generating lots of energy, it can create challenges in balancing supply and demand in our grid.
Alice Springs Future Grid is exploring ways to store and distribute the power of the sun, including through our VPP trial.
Use this link to download an Alice Springs Future Grid VPP info sheet.
The Solar Connect trial

Solar Connect is a town-wide VPP solar and battery trial linking households via a Virtual Power Plant. Households in the VPP will share solar and battery power in ways that benefit the Alice Springs grid and form the next generation of more sustainable energy solutions.
Households in Alice Springs with either rooftop solar, or solar with a battery system signed up to the trial in 2022.
To be eligible for the trial, participants were required to:
- Be a Jacana Energy customer
- Be an owner-occupier of the home you wish to register in the trial
- Have a continuous internet connection
- Own an *eligible solar and/or battery storage system (or have one installed one within a nominated timeframe)
The Solar Connect trial involved:
- Solar only participants
- Supersize solar participants
- Solar + battery participants

Solar PV Only option
This element of the trial involves households with an existing, eligible solar PV system <5kVA.
Data from the Solar-Only trial is used in modelling and forecasting to help manage the transition to renewables in Alice Springs. There is also a dynamic export component of this trial that can occur up to 12 days per year to allow PV inverter exports to be changed for system testing.
Supersize Solar option
Supersize Solar allowed households and small businesses to increase the size of their solar systems while still being allowed to sell an amount of excess energy back to the grid. In addition to increasing the size allowance, Supersize Solar is trialling dynamic export control.
Currently, systems larger than 5kVA (single phase) and 7kVA (three phase) are not permitted to export. This is a requirement of the Network Operator (Power and Water). Dynamic export delivered via the VPP means larger PV systems can export energy into the grid under appropriate conditions.
The dynamic export component of this trial allows:
- Variable exports between 0kW and 10kW (per phase) trialled for an equivalent of up to 7 days per month. (Variable exports will be set at the Network Operator’s discretion, via the VPP).
- Static export limit of 5kW (single phase) or 7 kW (three phase) at all other times.
Exports from these systems will be eligible for Jacana Energy’s standard Feed-in-Tariff* and credits will appear on your electricity bill.

Battery + Solar option
Participants in the solar-battery part of the trial will see their inverter data being used for analysis relating to power quality, hosting capacity, modelling and solar forecasting. This assists with both real-time operations and longer term planning for a higher renewable penetration power system.
Participants with batteries are testing a new tariff designed to optimise when a battery charges and discharges such that customer’s interests and those of the power system are aligned. This effectively means ensuring the batteries are charging in the middle of the day when we experience network congestion and minimum demand issues and discharging in the evening peak when system load is highest.
Supported Inverters
*Eligible solar systems are typically those less than five years old (installed after 2016) with an inverter from the supported inverter list below.
Manufacturer | Models | Connection type |
Fronius | Primo (INT or AU), Symo and GEN24 | Droplet |
Sungrow2 | SH5K-30, SH5K, SH10RT | Droplet |
SMA1 | Sunny Boy SB#.0, Sunny Tripower STP#.0 and Sunny Boy Storage SBS#.0 | Droplet |
Solax | X1-Hybrid-#.0T and X3-Hybrid-#.0T | Droplet |
Redback | SH5000 and ST10000 (Hybrid Inverters) | API |
Tesla | API | |
Excluded models | ||
ABB | No accepted models | Not applicable |
Delta | No accepted models | Not applicable |
Enphase | No accepted models | Not applicable |
Goodwe | No accepted models | Not applicable |
SolarEdge | No accepted models | Not applicable |
1. SB#000 and STP#000 series are excluded
2. Sungrow SG5K‑D inverter is excluded
What are the tariff rates and solar/battery behaviour?
Time Period | Solar PV Behaviour | Battery Behaviour | Usage Tariff | Feed in Tariff |
5 AM to 11 AM |
Solar power is exported to the grid to counter the morning peak demand for electricity. |
Battery is permitted to discharge to cover the household needs. |
$0.2811 | $0.1760 |
11 AM to 5 PM |
Solar power is used to charge the battery. Once the battery is full, excess energy is exported to the grid. |
Battery is charging until full and will hold the charge until the next period. |
$0.1540 | $0.0440 |
5 PM to 9 PM |
Minimal generation | Battery is discharging to cover the household needs. |
$0.2811 | $0.1760 |
9 PM to 5 AM |
Not Applicable | Battery continues to discharge to meet the household needs overnight. Additional export can be programmed on a case by case basis. |
$0.2811 | $0.0440 |