Solar and battery management

Get more out of your solar

The way you manage your solar can help you get the most out of your system and reduce your overall energy bill.

Make the best use of your power

Homes with a battery system can store solar energy and enjoy flexibility in how and when they use their solar power. If you don’t have a home battery system, timing your use of solar could help you reduce your energy bills.

As your system automatically sells excess power back to the grid through your solar feed-in tariff, it can work out better to time when you use solar power. If you’re on a flat rate energy plan with AGL (e.g., no peak/off-peak electricity price), try using more of your appliances during solar generation times, so you don't end up sending more solar to the grid during the day only to have to buy back power (electricity) at night.

If you’re on an energy plan that has an off-peak rate that is lower than your feed-in tariff, you may want to sell more of the solar you generate during the day and make use of the cheaper electricity price at night to run your appliances.

Stagger your consumption

Most modern appliances have timing delay functions, so you’re able to set the dishwasher, washing machine or clothes dryer to begin at any time during the day.

If you’re on a flat rate energy plan, staggering when you use your appliances during solar generation times may help keep your energy requirements in line with what your solar is generating. You can then use the power from your solar panels evenly throughout the day instead of running several appliances at night and paying for more electricity.

Alternatively, try delaying the use of your appliances until your lower, off-peak energy price kicks in (if you have one).

Monitor your solar power

Monitoring your solar power allows you to:

1. Have peace of mind. Beyond regularly cleaning your solar panels from dirt and grime as well as having them inspected by a certified electrician, monitoring your solar power will reassure you that your system is working.
2. Track your output. This way you can notice any patterns or identify faults in your system.
3. Optimise the use of your solar. Tracking your usage and the health of your system will keep it performing at its best. Maintaining your solar system by having it cleaned and serviced regularly can also help ensure peak performance.
   

You can monitor your solar power:

1. Through your electricity meter. We provide you with solar export and usage data via the AGL app or My Account. You may not be able to access this data immediately as it can take up to two weeks to get this up and running at our end, after which it should refresh every 24 hours.
2. Through Solar Status If you’re an existing AGL customer with solar and a smart meter, you can monitor the health of your solar system through MyAccount or your AGL App. Solar Status provides a daily health status of your system based on your home’s smart meter data. It tells you when your system is producing solar energy and when we think there might be a problem. To do this, we estimate your solar energy production and compare it against what we expect. We can then provide an indication of its performance. Please note that this is only an estimate due to the limited amount of information we have about your system.
3. Directly from the inverter, or from a monitoring system you’ve set up. Most inverters will have 'this month/last month' figures, or an inbuilt Wi-Fi/Bluetooth monitoring system.

Maintain your solar system

Inspections and technical maintenance should be left to a licensed electrician or Clean Energy Council-accredited solar panel system installer. You can prolong the life of your solar and ensure its performance by having it cleaned regularly. To learn more about solar maintenance, head to Solar problems and maintenance.

Manage your solar battery

There are a number of ways you can get the best performance out of your solar battery.

1. Avoid setting your backup power-reserve limit too high.
2. Check that your battery is set to the operating mode that delivers you the most savings. You might choose to set your battery to time-based control mode so that it charges from the grid at off-peak times and discharges during peak times (if applicable).
   
3. Contribute to a more reliable energy system in your community while receiving bill credits through the year by connecting your existing battery to our Virtual Power Plant.
4. Ensure you have the correct solar system size for your battery.
5. Monitor your battery performance in the AGL app or My Account.

Solar Command

We no longer offer Solar Command subscriptions to residential or new commercial solar customers. To monitor any power that’s sent to the grid, use the AGL app or My Account.
 

If you’d like more information on solar or our solar plans, check out Solar and batteries.