When we founded Indigo Power in 2018, our goal was simple: to power communities with 100% renewable energy.
Totally Renewable Yackandandah had already developed a simple strategy to achieve its 100% renewable energy target. Their plan was:
- To help households increase their energy efficiency and generate and store their own renewable energy;
- Enable energy sharing within the town; and
- Install community-scale generation and storage to meet any remaining energy needs.
But to make energy sharing a reality, a retail energy function was essential. This would connect customers to one another and to the larger community-scale renewable energy assets.
That’s where Indigo Power came in. We were established to create a platform that not only supported this vision but also provided a direct link between households and community-scale renewable energy solutions. Our goal was, and continues to be, to enable communities to share power efficiently and sustainably, helping individuals reduce their reliance on traditional energy sources.
We launched our energy-sharing software in 2021. This software gives customers insight into their household energy consumption and provides information on community-level energy sharing.
The software time-matches energy imports and exports within the hub, allowing communities like Yackandandah to track their progress towards achieving their renewable energy targets.
What we have found through our energy sharing dashboard was that most hubs had a significant surplus of solar energy on most days throughout the year, even in winter. Increasing amounts of renewable energy were being exported and not used within the hub. This issue was observed across our entire customer base, with Indigo Power customers exporting substantial amounts of electricity to the National Electricity Market (NEM). This trend was also evident throughout Victoria, where large quantities of solar energy were exported to the NEM on sunny days. This situation often drove spot prices very low and even into negative territory, meaning that participants had to pay to export their energy to the NEM.
To address this, we are excited to introduce the Energy Shapers Plan, a new electricity plan designed to reward customers for using electricity during periods of high average solar production. This plan will be available in the coming months to both new and existing customers, offering reduced rates for electricity used during the day.
Our approach with this plan is to provide a simple mechanism that allows our customers to easily create routines or program their appliances. Residential customers on this plan will receive a rebate on their bill for every kilowatt-hour of energy consumed between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. every day, year-round. Businesses will also receive a rebate during the same hours, but this rebate will only be available from October through March.
We believe that incentives for encouraging daytime energy consumption are likely to become more prominent and enduring. This shift allows customers to rethink how they use their household appliances. For example, lower electricity rates during the day enable customers to consider installing a battery or purchasing an electric vehicle, even if they do not have a solar power system.
Looking ahead, 2025 is shaping up to be a significant year for energy sharing. The launch of the Energy Shapers Plan will be accompanied by the rollout of community batteries in hubs across north-east Victoria and southern New South Wales, paving the way for even greater collaboration across our community energy hubs.
Ben is Indigo Power’s Managing Director. He has a passion for collaborative initiatives that positively impact our communities. Ben leads our skilled and committed projects team, driving the uptake of community-scale clean energy technologies in communities around Australia.