SunSPOT Electrification: Future-proofing solar and battery decision-making for households and businesses

Project Lead: Dr. Mike Roberts, UNSW
Project Partners: Australian PV Institute 

Project Overview

SunSPOT helps households and businesses make smart investment decisions about solar and batteries. The costs and benefits depend on a range of factors, including individual energy usage patterns and roof form, so understanding the complexity can be confusing for non-specialists. Using data-driven modelling to do the heavy lifting, SunSPOT provides personalised, trusted cost-benefit analysis via a simple and easy-to-use interface, to support consumer decision-making. 

This project extends the existing tool to provide future-proof investment advice for an all-electric future, by helping users to identify the best solar and battery system for their future electricity use, as they transition from gas to electric appliances. 

This project will develop electrification functionality for the APVI’s SunSPOT solar and battery calculator (https://www.sunspot.org.au/). SunSPOT provides bespoke cost-benefit assessments of solar and battery systems to support the decision making of around 5,000 households and businesses every month, based on their existing electricity use and the form and shading of their roof.  

 However, customers are likely to electrify their appliances – deploying electric hot water, cookers and HVAC – and/or buy an EV within the 20+ year typical lifetime of their solar system.  This project will enable SunSPOT to offer estimates based on their future energy use.  

 The grant will support development of load profiles for common electrical appliances and updating of the SunSPOT user interface (UI) to enable users to factor future electric appliance purchases into the technical and financial estimates provided by the tool. 

Objectives and Deliverables

• Set of typical load profiles for at least one major electric appliance, plus the salient household & appliance usage characteristics (e.g. for electric hot water: profiles might be based on type and size of HW system, climate zone, household occupancy and preference for morning / evening showers). 
• Development of algorithm to include addition / subtraction of appliance load profile to meter data (e.g. replacement of resistive HW with heat pump) and integration into SunSPOT estimates. 
• Design, public deployment and testing of updates to the Sunspot UI to capture key user inputs and add an electric appliance to past load data, with estimates updated accordingly. 
• Proof of concept and implementation framework to enable integration of other household appliances with ease 

Impact to Net Zero Targets

Residential energy use is responsible for over 20% of Australia’s carbon emissions. While there is progress towards and a roadmap for decarbonisation of the electricity system, including through widespread deployment of rooftop solar generation, carbon emissions from fossil-fuelled domestic water heating, space heating, cooking and transport continue to contribute to climate change, as well as causing particulate and other emissions that have direct health impacts. 

Electrification of households and businesses is a priority for NSW government, as evidence by $8million funding to support community electrification programmes (https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2023/02/17/nsw-to-electrify-entire-communities-in-8-million-pilot-program/). Some NSW councils, including Waverley and Inner West councils, have mandated all-electric appliances in new housing developments. However, the pathway to electrification for existing residences is less straightforward. Moreover, the impacts of electrification on electricity usage and energy bills are not well understood by households.  

“Consumer knowledge also remains a major hurdle to overcome. The lack of visual presentations and the use of technical language make it difficult for communities to comprehend the benefits and feasibility of renewable energy solutions, further limiting access to information and understanding amongst consumers” (Switching On: Benefits of Household Electrification in Australia (2023), Monash University.)