[jonathanlydall]

Aside from it benefiting energy companies, is there any justification for such a law?

In South Africa we’ve had load shedding on and off since 2008. It’s becoming pretty standard for middle class homes to have inverters with batteries and optionally solar.

It does create an issue though that when a load shedding window ends, a whole lot of batteries start charging all at once (especially during non-daylight hours).

Also due to load shedding, I don’t get full use of my batteries. Ideally I would like my batteries to pretty much fully discharge over night with energy from my solar during the day, however, because load shedding is somewhat irregular here, I have it set to not go too low so it has enough energy to tide me over.

[SoftTalker]

Utilities get a local monopoly and guaranteed tariffs in exchange for the considerable investment in building out the supply grid and generating capacity, and the obligation to maintain it.

If individuals are allowed to opt-out, that changes the financial promises made to the utilities. Of course this was mostly done at a time before it was economically feasible for anyone to go off-grid with solar and batteries.

I quite honestly prefer this arrangement. I have zero desire to own and be responsible for the maintenance and safety of tens of thousands of dollars worth of on-premises solar/battery/electrical transfer switch gear. I'm quite happy to pay the local utility to run a cable to my electrical panel and have them be responsible for everything outside the walls of my house.

[skybrian]

Or perhaps someday the utility will give you a battery:

Vermont utility proposes to install battery storage in most homes https://environmentamerica.org/updates/vermont-utility-propo...

[defrost]

Locally in Western Australia we're having discussion between residents, council and state power about distributed small shipping container sized batteries, one per 200 homes.

There's a lot of solar power here in the state and a good argument for locally "shared" batteries in terms of maintainance, fire safety, etc.

Not much to say on that ATM, back of envelope looks good, there's a report in the works.

[jonathanlydall]

I agree it would be much more efficient on the whole if the grid manages energy storage in bulk.

Unfortunately over here we have a monopoly awarded state owned power producer which has a history of incompetence and corruption.

Maybe at some point our grid can be trusted to be reliable, but in the meantime everyone is either installing their own batteries or having no electricity for hours at a time. Tragic, but what else can you do.

[Dylan16807]

They said it's illegal to install a grid-charged battery backup.

How is that opting out of the grid?

Are you sure you're answering the question that was asked?

[h0l0cube]

> Also due to load shedding, I don’t get full use of my batteries.

But your batteries will last much much longer at the lower cycle depth

[Tade0]

If it's any consolation your battery will at least last longer than one which is always doing full cycles.

[jonathanlydall]

If the battery is only ever charged from solar and I uncharge it to the lowest safe level in the evenings, it lets me get the best possible return on my capital expense. How long it lasts doesn’t matter in this regard.

But in terms of using it for UPS purposes, it lasting longer would mean I won’t need to expend capital again as soon.

So I guess it depends on what you want out the battery.

I did some math when I bought the battery and it seemed it would probably pay itself back before needing to be replaced, but it was questionable at our energy prices.

I bought the system mostly for UPS reasons though, especially as I work from home and on a personal note, sitting in the dark several evenings a week or being unable to make coffee when you want, sucks.

[suoduandao3]

I'm sure benefitting energy companies is the real reason... but if everyone had a battery backup and they all started charging at the same time, I suppose it could make it harder to reboot the system after an outage.

[throwawayffffas]

I am pretty sure it's a fire safety thing.

> illegal to install grid-charged battery backups in home.

I don't know but I am guessing the objections is with the "in home" not the battery backup.