New South Wales has quietly rebooted the state solar battery rebate, and expanded the scheme to offer significant discounts on storage for apartments, small to medium business, and on batteries sized up to 30 megawatt-hours for the state’s commercial and industrial sector.
The amendments to the state Labor government’s Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS) were signed off by energy minister Penny Sharpe late last month and have been published on the NSW Climate and Energy Action website, here.
And they have the potential to change the game, again, on behind-the-meter solar and storage and its contribution to the grid in a state that remains heavily dependent on coal power.
The changes essentially reactivate the PDRS battery installation discount that was snoozed last year following the launch of federal Labor’s Cheaper Home Batteries (CHB) scheme.
The decision to snooze the scheme was driven by the desire to avoid people “double dipping” into both rebates. Instead, the PDRS offered a further discount to households that signed their battery up to a virtual power plant (VPP).
