Startup Daily TV: ShineHub launches Australia's first choose-your-own-retailer virtual power plant

ShineHub, a solar energy startup, has launched Australia’s first choose-your-own-retailer virtual power plant (VPP), giving homes with a battery the chance to make more money supplying electricity when it’s needed most.

Co-founder Alex Georgiou said ShineHub set out to reduce the complexity, confusion and financial barriers for access to solar and battery solutions and joined us on Startup Daily TV to explain how the VPP concept works.

ShineHub’s customers, particularly in South Australia, had been giving the company feedback that they wanted to be part of a Virtual Power Plant – a network of connected local homes with batteries to supply electricity, especially when the sun’s stopped shining – but they also wanted the freedom to choose your own electricity retailer and change retailers whenever you want.

And so ShineHub created the first and currently, the only, Virtual Power Plant in South Australia, Victoria, and NSW that doesn’t tie customers to a particular energy retailer.

The ShineHub Community VPP pays $0.45/kWh when your power is discharged into the grid, on top of the retailer’s regular solar feed in tariff from your electricity retailer, which is usually around $0.10/kWh.

However there are some conditions – you need to live in South Australia, be online and currently, only Alpha ESS batteries are compatible with the ShineHub Community VPP, although more batteries will be compatible soon.

Georgiou said it’s free to get on board, with no lock-in contracts so users can choose and switch energy retailers at any time.

You can learn more about ShineHub here.

And watch our interview with Alex Georgiou below.

Don’t forget you can turn into the “hour of power” – as our guests have dubbed it – every weekday from 2-3pm on ausbiz.com.au, for the latest news in tech and startups.

If you can’t make it, then you can always catch up on what our guests had to say on demand via the ausbiz site. It’s free once you sign up.