Congratulations on installing your Sungrow Solar Battery! While solar power is the primary way to charge your battery, leveraging grid power during specific times can boost your savings even further. By switching to a Time-Of-Use (TOU) electricity plan, you can take advantage of lower-cost Off-Peak and Super-Off-Peak tariffs.
There are two key benefits to switching to a TOU electricity plan:
Extended Savings Through the Night: If your battery’s charge doesn’t last the entire night, you will continue to achieve savings using lower-cost overnight Off-Peak grid power.
Reliable Charging on Cloudy Days: On days with limited sunlight, your solar panels may not generate enough excess power to fully charge the battery. By setting a Forced Charging schedule during the ‘Super Off-Peak’ period, you can top-up the battery affordably, ensuring it reaches 100% charge every day, regardless of the weather.
Setting a Forced Charging schedule for your Sungrow Battery during these cost-effective windows guarantees energy reliability and savings.
synergy TIME-OF-USE PLANS AVAILABLE
Positive Energy Solutions is a Perth based company where the majority of residents are on the Synergy ‘Home A1’ plan which offers a flat tariff of 33.26 cents/kWh.
However, now that you have a battery installed, you may want to consider switching to a Synergy TOU plan to benefit from the cheaper Off-Peak & Super Off-Peak tariffs.
SYNERGY ‘MIDDAY SAVER’
https://www.synergy.net.au/Your-home/Energy-plans/Midday-Saver
- Super Off-Peak (9am to 3pm) = only 8.85 cents/kWh.
- Peak (3pm to 9pm) = 55.32 cents/kWh. Fortunately, your Solar & Battery system provides power during this expensive window.
- Off-Peak (9pm to 9am) = 24.34 cents/kWh.
Or for those with an Electric Vehicle or Plug-in Hybrid…
SYNERGY ‘EV ADD ON’
(similar to the Midday Saver plan, but with an even lower overnight off-peak rate)
https://www.synergy.net.au/Your-home/Energy-plans/Electric-Vehicle-Add-On
- Super Off-Peak (9am to 3pm) = 8.85 cents/kWh.
- Peak (3pm to 9pm) = 55.32 cents/kWh.
- Off-Peak (9pm to 11pm / 6am to 9am) = 24.34 cents/kWh.
- Overnight (11pm to 6am) = 19.91 cents/kWh.
*Note: These Synergy TOU plans have a higher daily Supply Charge of 132.78 cents per day. In comparison, the standard Synergy ‘Home A1’ Supply Charge is 119.24 cents per day. This is a $49.40 per year difference.
A real-world example
Our customer, Phil, has a 38.4kWh Sungrow Battery installed on his home in Gidgegannup, paired with 11.5kW of SunPower solar panels and a 5kW Sungrow Hybrid inverter (the largest inverter size allowed by Western Power at the time)
The Sungrow Hybrid inverter was chosen for it’s ability to output 5kW max AC power (for household loads) + 6.6kW max DC power (for battery charging) simultaneously! With Phil’s high power usage, plus large battery to charge, this simultaneous AC + DC output capability comes in handy!
Below is a screenshot from Phil’s Sungrow iSolarCloud monitoring platform showing:
- Solar PV power production
- Grid power usage
- Battery Charging & Discharging
- Household power usage / Load
- Battery State-of-Charge (SOC)
On a cloudy Winter’s day, with high power usage, there was next to zero excess solar power available for battery charging. Fortunately, that didn’t stop Phil’s battery reaching 100% SOC. Thanks to an automatic Forced Charging schedule from 9am – 3pm, the Battery SOC climbed steadily throughout the day using ‘Super Off-Peak’ grid power to reach 100%.
With a fully charged battery, Phil’s home was totally battery powered throughout the entire night!
quick guide: SETTING AN Automatic CHARGING SCHEDULE
After you have switched to a Synergy TOU electricity plan, log in to your Sungrow iSolarCloud app.
Below the Live Power Flow diagram, select ‘Self-consumption‘
Under ‘Energy management‘, select ‘Self-consumption‘, then click ‘Advanced settings‘
Select the schedule to repeat ‘Every day‘
Click on the ‘Forced charging‘ column to insert a Forced Charging time period.
Click and drag the small indentations to your desired Start & Stop times.
TIPS:
*Allow enough time to charge your battery with the desired amount of energy. For example, a 10kW inverter can charge at 10kW max power. Therefore, a two hour Forced Charging schedule from 1pm – 3pm ensures a battery is charged with at least 20kWh of energy before 3pm*
**On sunny days, the battery may already be fully charged using excess solar power before the Forced Charging schedule even begins. In that case, forced charging will not begin because the battery is already fully charged**
***Be sure the Forced Charging Stop time is no later than 15:00 (3pm). This is when the expensive Synergy Peak tariff begins. The goal is to run on stored battery power after 3pm***
Lastly, click ‘Save‘ and the setup is complete.
If you have any trouble, our Positive Energy team will be happy to help.
NEED A BATTERY EXPANSION?
If your battery is often not lasting the entire night, you may want to consider a Battery Expansion. Especially if your battery is being depleted before 9pm.
