Flexible Exports

For Solar Retailers and Installers

Select from the options below to learn more about Flexible Exports.

• Read on to see our video and infographic on Flexible Exports,
• Find out which properties are eligible for Flexible Exports, and
• Sign up to receive updates.

Empowering the solar industry

South Australia continues to lead the world in the take-up of distributed energy resources (DER) such as rooftop solar and home batteries. SA Power Networks is committed to ensuring that our distribution network can continue to support the growth of rooftop solar in the State for years to come.

The rapid uptake of solar is placing significant stress on the electricity distribution network in some areas, and we are actively investing in a range of measures so that we can:

• deliver on our goal to double the amount of solar on our network by 2025
• support our State’s target of 100% net-renewables by 2030.

Read more information on how we are enabling the distributed energy transition.

The challenge and how we are responding

Some parts of our electricity distribution network are reaching their maximum capacity to host solar exports. This is causing customers’ solar inverters to trip off or ramp down, and voltage issues for other non-solar customers nearby.

In some areas, reverse solar power flows on the network are beginning to exceed the capacity of our zone substations. Without mitigating action, this has the potential to overload or damage our equipment, which may lead to blackouts.

We have several initiatives underway to increase the capacity of our network to support solar. One of the changes is the introduction of “Flexible Exports”, enabled by modern, smart, internet-connected inverters. This innovative new connection option will be offered to new or upgrading solar customers as an alternative to reduced fixed export limits in overloaded parts of our network.

This area of our website explains the flexible and fixed connection options in more detail. Please also check out our video below, which explains more about Flexible Exports.

Flexible Exports for Installers video transcript (PDF 99KB).

We have created infographics to help explain Flexible Exports.

We will continue to add further information to these pages and communicate directly with the solar industry so  you can make the most of these changes.

In the meantime, please sign up for and read our Notices to Industry below and visit our FAQs.

Related articles

• Are you up to speed? Check you knowledge of the Dynamic and Flexible Exports Requirements that came into effect from July 2023 (September 2023)
• The new SA Government Dynamic Export Limit Requirements and SA Power Networks Flexible Exports expansion now live (July 2023) 
• Attention: Update issued on SA's Dynamic Export Requirements (June 2023)
• Only 3 weeks to go: Get ready for SA's new Dynamic Export Requirements and Flexible Exports rollout (June 2023)
• Introducing consequences for non-compliant DER installations from 19 May 2023 (April 2023) 
• Flexible Exports will be available to more residential customers from July (March 2023) 
• Flexible Exports trial for clustered small embedded generation systems (March 2023) 
• Introducing the Flexible Exports trial for medium embedded generation systems (March 2023) 
• Flexible Exports Notice to Industry
  • Upcoming changes to small embedded generation connections (14 April 2021)
  • Flexible Exports Trial go live 23 September 2021 (9 September 2021)
  • Flexible Exports now offered in additional area with more compatible equipment (28 January 2022)
• Relevant Agent information and articles
• Lessons learnt during the initial trial
• Find out which properties are eligible for Flexible Exports

Contact us

• Use our  online form
• Call 13 12 61 during business hours