Aerial view of multiple solar panels on the roof of residential house

Dynamic Connections for energy exports

Welcome to the future of electricity network connections – the smart way to boost your solar exports!

What is a Dynamic Connection?

A Dynamic Connection is a new smarter connection option for solar photovoltaic (PV), battery and electric vehicle (EV) charging installations. It allows more of your excess energy to be exported, while ensuring we maintain a safe and reliable electricity network.

How it works:

  1. 1 Monitor

    we continually monitor the capacity of your local electricity network, and

  2. 2 Calculate

    we calculate how much of your excess energy can be exported to the grid, and

  3. 3 Signal

    your inverter receives a signal via a WIFI communications link with our network, and

  4. 4 Maximise export

    the signal allows your system to maximise the export of your excess energy, based on available network capacity.

This new smarter technology helps you to achieve maximum energy exports to the grid, and more of your excess solar energy in our network helps ensure a greener future, while making your energy work for you.

Some of the things that may influence your level of export include:

  • time of day
  • which part of the electricity network you are connected to
  • energy use and generation by other customers on your local electricity network.

Watch our short overview video

This video provides a quick overview of how Dynamic Connections work.

What are the benefits for you?

A Dynamic Connection means you may be able to export your excess energy to the grid, even if your local electricity network is already considered saturated with solar connections. You may also achieve exports above the smaller fixed export limit, provided network capacity is available to accept them.

Dynamic Connections also enable you to connect up to 10kVA of solar PV and an additional up to 10kVA of battery energy storage on a single phase without upgrading your connection to three-phase.

In the long term, Dynamic Connections may become the norm for everyone.

How to apply

The process for selecting a Dynamic Connection is much the same as applying for a fixed export connection. You buy a compliant system, your installer ensures it has an approved inverter or other gateway device, and will then submit your connection application to us.

What are the benefits for the electricity network?

Queensland is leading the world in solar uptake, and we want to ensure we can support even more solar on our network. To achieve this, we need smarter interaction between solar systems and our electricity network.

Solar PV installations have been so successful in Queensland, that some areas of our network are saturated and starting to exceed their export capacity during the day.  If left unmanaged, this may negatively impact our network and our customers.

Dynamic Connections will allow more solar PV, battery and Vehicle To Grid (V2G) systems to be approved to export to the grid. This is because your export amount can be flexible, rather than a set amount on a fixed export connection, so it can be managed better on the network.

Being able to achieve flexible exports into our network via Dynamic Connections will keep it more stable and prepared for new energy technologies in the future.

The industry is now calling these technologies “New Energy Tech”, or Distributed Energy Resources (DER), or Consumer Energy Resources (CER), and a New Energy Tech Consumer Code has been written to help protect customers.

Information for installers and suppliers

When do the Dynamic Connections Standards come into effect?

For systems under 30kVASTN3510 Dynamic Standard for Small IES Connections (PDF 836.1 kb) came into effect in December 2021 with the latest revision released 6 February 2023.

For systems 30kVA to 1500kVASTNW3511 Dynamic Standard for LV EG Connections (PDF 1.1 mb) is effective from 6 February 2023.

How do inverter manufacturers gain certification?

Manufacturers interested in gaining certification for their equipment (inverters, gateway devices) are requested to review the Smart Energy Profile (SEP2) Client Handbook (PDF 662.1 kb) and follow the steps to become a compliant provider.

Dynamic Connections compliant providers list

You will need to have a compliant inverter or gateway device installed with your system. Your installer will help you to determine the most cost-effective solution from the range of options and equipment available. Installers can contact a company on the Dynamic Connections Compliant Providers (PDF 247.0 kb) list to enquire about the current approved inverters and devices for Dynamic Connections. The number of providers will continue to grow over time as more systems become certified with our utility server.

FAQs

Read our FAQs which may help with any other queries you may have.