Invest in Rooftop Solar and home Battery with no up-front cost

Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group (MRSG) is seeking Expressions of Interest from residents who want to reduce their electricity bills by purchasing a renewable energy system but have been unable to afford the capital outlay. 

Until now.

There’s an opportunity for homeowners to have a rooftop solar array and battery storage installed at no upfront cost. In more detail: 

·     Repayments are made over the 10-year period of the program at a rate less than the reduced electricity bill. 

·     The system is maintained over that period. 

·     After 10 years, the system is owned by the household.

·     Those people who already have solar panels will also be able to participate by adding a battery to their existing system. 

Plico - the company offering this program - will use some of the power generated to operate a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). The VPP enables them to harvest some of the stored power and use it to trade on the wholesale electricity market. 

householders to the above long term financial incentives, some of the more direct benefits to householders are:

·     Any electricity not traded will be available for household use, as will most of the electricity generated in sunshine hours. It’s this residual, untraded power that reduces the household electricity bill. 

·     Should the grid suffer a power outage, the household will still have access to the power generated by the solar array electricity and stored in the battery. 

Take a look at the Plico website: https://www.plicoenergy.com.au/solar-battery-systems.

Plico has successfully operated this scheme in Western Australia for a few years and is now broadening the offer to Melbourne residents. Here in regional Victoria, we need to demonstrate that there is sufficient interest for the company to extend their offer to us. 

If you apply online for a quote, their response will be that they do not operate in your area. But that needn’t be the end of it. Instead, go to https://www.mrsg.org.au/greg/plico, complete the expression of interest form and we will add you to the list. 

If there is sufficient interest, we can then approach Plico with sufficient economies of scale to make an attractive case for extending the program to the Macedon Ranges. 

Until then, you’ll appreciate that we can’t give any details of system size, cost or finance options. These will, in any case, vary according to individual circumstances.  

MRSG’s interest in this offer is solely that we encourage any means whereby Macedon Ranges residents can embrace sustainability, reduce their energy bills and at the same time take pressure off the grid. 

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM - PLICO OFFER