SA Power Networks (SAPN) has been given the green light to continue its Market Active Solar initiative for another year; A project that aims to support and reward solar owners to better manage exports and domestic consumption for the benefit of the larger grid.
What is the SAPN Market Active Solar (MAS) study?
The Market Active Solar initiative is helping to refine SAPN’s approach to integrating rooftop solar into the grid by offering innovative new retail electricity tariffs that reward solar customers for being more responsive to wholesale energy market prices and help them maximize the value of their solar investments.
The trial was originally scheduled to run for 12 months from the end of 2024, but the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has granted SAPN an interim exemption1 allowing it to continue the MAS trial from January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026.
“The scope of the interim waiver is limited to 100 existing Engie MAS test customers and is granted with waiver conditions that provide transparency on the total costs incurred by SAPN, data on registered customers, flexible export capacity allocations and customer consent agreements,” said an AER announcement published last week.
The trial is supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of the agency’s Advancing Renewables Program.
Why the MAS process?
Solar energy exports are reaching levels that are becoming increasingly difficult for grid operators to manage and can potentially pose a threat to grid stability. One way to address this is to impose export fees during such periods to signal to system owners that they are consuming more of the energy they produce themselves.
Encouraging solar rooftop owners to respond to market price signals by voluntarily reducing output when necessary using automated processes is an important step in the development of Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) to support very high levels of renewable energy and will enable further growth in the solar market, according to SAPN.
But the general idea of export fees (a so-called “sun tax”) understandably doesn’t sit well with many solar customers; although in most related systems there would be a reward aspect.
The SAPN difference is that the MAS study focuses more on carrots than sticks.
How does the market-active solar experiment work?
This trial combines SAPN’s pioneering flexible solar export infrastructure with Engie’s Solar Advantage plan in South Australia, rewarding participants with incentives rather than penalizing them.
Participants receive an ongoing $10 trial credit each month in addition to a $100 sign-up credit and $50 from a survey completed at the end. The terms and conditions for the Engie Solar Advantage plan can be found here; However, note that these were last updated in November 2024.
“MAS is an industry-first solution that demonstrates how shared digital infrastructure and collaboration between grid operators and retailers can create a platform for dynamic solar power curtailment that benefits customers, retailers and the grid,” explains SAPN.
Although the test was not without problems, it provides important information about system design, customer experience and understanding that could potentially serve as the basis for a more formal program in the coming period. Not only SAPN but also operators in other states benefit from this knowledge.
If you have an hour to kill, you can get the latest insights in the following SAPN video discussing MAS progress in October 2025.
In this regard, SA Power Networks was recently named the winner of the Premier’s Award for Productivity Improvement (Energy) for the Market Active Solar project in recognition of its efforts and the innovative nature of the project.
“This award reflects our commitment to innovation and sustainability and puts customers at the heart of South Australia’s energy transition,” SAPN said.
Footnotes
- Under the AER Ring Fencing rules, which separate monopolies from competitive energy services, an exemption was required because SAPN was engaging in contestable market activity for this project. ↩
- Originally the test was supposed to be with AGL Energy (AGL) and Simply Energy customers – I’m not sure what happened there. ↩
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