Plenti Group Limited (Plenti) will expand its partnership with AGL to deliver more affordable solar batteries to customers and provide easier access to AGL’s Virtual Power Plant (VPP) with new subsidies on offer to customers.
Customers who finance their new home battery through Plenti and connect to AGL’s VPP will be able to take advantage of subsidies from AGL up to $1,500, depending on where they live.
This is in addition to specific state government subsidies already in place, which means Victorian customers may be eligible for a subsidy of up to $4,500 and South Australian customers may be eligible for a subsidy of up to $3,500 off their upfront battery costs.
Plenti chief executive officer Daniel Foggo said: “This program is a unique market-leading solution that brings Australian households one step closer to our clean energy future by making it easier and more affordable to access renewable energy in the home.
“We’re delighted to grow our partnership with AGL and bring this ground-breaking initiative to market: we know the upfront costs of batteries are a significant barrier for households to adopt battery technology, and together we’re delivering this solution to help overcome this hurdle and drive the uptake of battery systems in Australia.”
AGL Energy chief customer officer Christine Corbett said the partnership was about making going green accessible and affordable for all Australians.
She said: “AGL’s partnership with Plenti gives our customers more options, empowers them to choose renewables at home and provides greater flexibility and affordability. Choosing renewable energy at home means more benefits and savings through reduced household energy bills and this partnership helps break down those initial, upfront costs.”
Eligible customers who sign up to AGL’s VPP will join a growing network of homes with solar batteries that are helping to take pressure off the electricity grid when needed, like on days when there’s high energy demand.
Customers using AGL’s VPP are contributing to a cleaner, more reliable energy system. Customers will continue to enjoy the benefits of their new solar battery while on the VPP program, as well as benefits from AGL’s market-leading energy plans including their solar feed-in tariff.
Plenti will act as the exclusive administrator of the program, using its market-leading technology and finance solutions to provide customers with access to simple and affordable home solar and battery finance.
The VPP subsidy program will also provide more than 750 installers of home solar and batteries with the opportunity to exclusively deliver customers lower-cost renewable energy solutions, in turn driving both sales and home solar battery uptake.
The AGL VPP battery subsidies will be $1,500 in South Australia and $1,000 in NSW, Queensland, and Victoria.
The partnership also delivers a customer solution that helps lay the groundwork for Australian households to move closer to home electrification through installation of solar and batteries, and in the future, this could be extended to other items including solar-charged electric vehicles.
This partnership is the most recent of a series of energy retailer partnerships Plenti has established over the past year, with the AGL Battery VPP subsidy program to be rolled out from early June.
