Who pays, who benefits? The financial impacts of solar photovoltaic systems and air-conditioners on Australian households

Increasingly, there are calls for the owners of photovoltaic (PV) systems to pay additional charges on the basis that they are not contributing their fair share to network revenue. Air conditioners (A/Cs) are even more widespread than distributed PV systems, and their use has increased demand peaks and the size of networks required to meet them, the cost of which is typically recovered from all customers. There appears to be limited analysis in the literature regarding the impacts of A/C and PV on the electricity bills of customers who do not have these technologies. While the impacts of renewable energy on centralised electricity generation have been explored in the literature, this paper proposes a methodology to estimate the financial impacts of PV and A/C that flow through network operators to other customers. The analysis indicates that, in the datasets used, A/C systems have most likely resulted in significant bill increases for customers who don't have them. In contrast, PV systems have most likely had a minimal financial impact on customers who do not have them. While these analyses were undertaken using Australian data, the method is applicable to most countries with modifications to suit the local regulatory environment.