How Amber for Batteries optimises your battery to take negative pricing into consideration

On days where the SmartShift™ battery automation can tell (based on the forecasted wholesale price and your forecasted solar generation for the day) that it’s possible you may end up exporting excess solar during a negative price period, SmartShift™ will act in advance to reduce the likelihood that this will happen. 

This will typically involve energy being automatically exported from your battery to the grid at a lower wholesale rate earlier in the day to ensure your solar generation can be directed straight to your battery later in the day when the wholesale price dips below zero. So although it may look strange that your stored energy is being exported at a lower rate, this benefits you in the long run by making room for more solar in the battery. 

SmartShift™ is also always looking for this opportunity to make the most value for our customers and there is no better time to charge up your battery than when the wholesale rate is <0c/kWh. Both the Battery Booster and Earnings Optimiser modes will look to take advantage of these times to charge your battery if it has spare capacity, so you’re topped up with cheap, green energy. 

Beyond this, we’re improving our algorithm and forecasting accuracy, so that SmartShift™ gets even better at determining how your battery can best be optimised to deliver you more value overall. In the past, we have relied on price forecasts from AEMO to make a plan for your battery system. We can now supplement these AEMO prices with our new expected price range. This comes from advanced forecasting, developed by Amber in conjunction with CSIRO. This takes a number of inputs into account, such as the AEMO price, weather, demand and supply forecasts, to provide a more accurate prediction of future prices.

The good news is that even though the experience of exporting at Negative FiT can be a frustrating one, Amber’s data shows that most Amber for Batteries customers came out on top with wholesale FiTs over the past 12 months, despite sometimes exporting during negative FiT periods.