McKercher / News & perspectives
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Installer Bulletin: CEC to De-list Smart Lifestyle Inverters and Batteries from 17 September
The Clean Energy Council intends to de-list eight Smart Lifestyle products because the supplier behind them went into liquidation in March and can no longer be reached.
Read the recordBulletins
Installer Bulletin: Tesla Will Remotely Disable Powerwall Units Identified as Stolen
Tesla has notified its Australian certified installers that units identified as stolen will be remotely disabled after commissioning, and that secondhand serial numbers should be verified first.
Installer Bulletin: NEOVOLT Batteries Face CEC Suspension from 15 September
The Clean Energy Council has notified industry of an intended suspension of seven Bytewatt NEOVOLT battery models over certification and labelling matters.
Installer Bulletin: General Electrical Work in a Home That Already Has a Battery
Electrical Contractors Association WA reports an increasing number of technical enquiries about battery systems encountered during ordinary residential work. A job booked as a power point, a light or an EV charger now regularly involves an installation with a battery energy storage system the attending electrician did not install, and that changes both the isolation procedure and the testing that has to follow.
Market Commentary
WA's Capacity Price Benchmark Moves Back to a Gas Turbine
The Coordinator of Energy published a Draft Determination on 9 September 2026 proposing an E-Class simple cycle gas turbine as the benchmark technology behind both of Western Australia's capacity prices. A battery held that reference until a duration rule moved from six hours to seven.
Battery Sizing Fragmented After the 1 May Capacity Taper
Analysis published on 7 September 2026 records the size that dominated Australian battery installations in April losing most of its market within a month of the federal capacity taper starting. By July no single size held more than about five per cent, and the quarterly average fell about a tenth.
Australia Has Entered the Retrofit Stage of the Home Battery Market
A market-stage framework published on 31 August 2026 places Australia in the retrofit stage, where battery-only installations have climbed from under a tenth of the market to around 40 per cent and batteries now outnumber new solar systems. The stage draws on a finite pool of existing rooftops.
Compliance & Safety
Regulator Suspends a Provider Over Digitally Altered Installation Photographs
Victoria's Essential Services Commission suspended an accredited provider on 25 August 2026 after its fraud taskforce identified markers indicating that photographs submitted as evidence of completed upgrades had been digitally altered. The scheme does not operate in Western Australia, but the detection method transfers directly to certificate evidence lodged here.
WA Opens Consultation on New Protections for Single Property Network Customers
Energy Policy WA has opened consultation on a draft Code of Practice extending customer protections to single property networks, the term now used for what were previously called embedded networks. Feedback closes 25 September 2026, ahead of registration with the Economic Regulation Authority from 1 July 2027.
Multi-state investigations test what consumer code compliance can enforce
A solar retailer expelled from the New Energy Tech Consumer Code in December 2025 continued trading and is now the subject of investigations in three states and by the Clean Energy Regulator. The sequence sets out plainly what expulsion from the code does and does not do, and why Western Australia is the exception.
Company News
Commercial solar feasibility in WA: the checks before system sizing
Commercial solar feasibility starts with interval demand, the point of connection and site constraints. Roof area and an advertised certificate value do not establish a viable system size.
Commercial solar connection pathways on the Western Power network
Commercial solar connection is a separate workstream from equipment selection. This guide distinguishes Western Power's current technical review pathway from WA reforms that remain under consultation.
WA Government Opens Consultation on Solar, Battery and EV Charger Connections
The WA Government has published an issues paper with seven proposals to improve data quality and connection timeframes for solar, batteries and EV chargers on the SWIS.
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