How to set up your solar/battery system for use with Globird ZeroHero – Sigenergy Example
What is ZeroHero?
Globird ZeroHero is an energy plan that should allow pretty much everyone with a solar/house battery system to generate a small negative bill every month, or at least negate your supply charge, so if you have a house battery it’s worth a look.
But wait you say, I’ve got a battery, I don’t need to draw from the grid, my bills will be $0! Who needs ZeroHero?
Regardless of how much electiricty you use, everyone pays a supply charge which is maybe $1.20 a day – it varies, and is likely to go up. Let’s say it’s $1.20 per day – that’s $438 a year even if you don’t use a single watt from the grid and export. I think we’d all like to avoid that cost, and make a little extra if we can. But first, we have to understand the problem and opportunity. And while this article uses Sigenergy systems as an example, the principles apply to other batteries you can use with Globird.
The energy shift problem
Australia has a power timing problem.
Think about your own electricity usage – it’s probably mostly in the evening as you come home, put the heating on, start cooking, switch the TV on to scroll for half an hour through unappealing Netflix choices, and do all the usual life chores, most of which involve electricity. And it’s the same for everyone else.
Now consider solar. Lots and lots of houses with solar, but…when is that power produced? Unfortunately, it’s when the light is brightest which is around 1100-1400.
So we have the unfortunate situation where we generate lots of power during the middle of the day, but need the power in the evening when the sun has set. And this is where energy shifting comes in.
What we need to do is store the surplus energy generated during peak solar periods, and then release it back into the grid during peak usage periods, and that’s exactly what battery plans like ZeroHero pay you to do.
The three free hours of power deal being rolled out across Australia is of course during peak solar. There is a lot of complaint that the period isn’t in the evening…but it can’t be, as that’s not when peak solar is produced. So it’s either have the hours in the middle of the day, or nothing at all.
Is Globird ZeroHero for me?
Globird ZeroHero has the following periods which I’ve named:
- Standard FIT – you pay for grid power if you use it, and get a standard FIT $0.02 per kWh which is a Feed In Tariff, money you are paid per kWh of export to the grid.
- Standard usage – you pay for grid power if you use it, and there’s no FIT.
- Free power (ZeroCharge) 1100-1400 – middle of day period when you get free power, as much as you can use. Obviously no FIT during this time. The ‘zero’ here means no cost, not no charging.
- ZeroHero period (ZeroHero Super Export Credit) 1800-2100 – in this period you get a bonus of $1 if you use no power, and an extra FIT to total $0.15 per kWh. The $0.15 is made up of the a standard $0.02 rate plus $0.13 extra. Potentially, you could earn here $0.15 x 5 kWh x 3 hours = 15kWh or $2.25, plus the $1 non-use bonus so total $3.25.
So if you can avoid drawing power from 1400 to 1100 the next day, ZeroHero could work for you, and even better if you can export at least 3kWh during 1800 to 2100 you could get a small negative bill. Here’s what the rates look like, rounded to the nearest cent:
Here are some ZeroHero export scenarios assuming no grid use and varying export. The scenarios are based on my rates which may vary a little compared to yours:
You should look at other Globird plans, and other energy retailers to make sure you’re getting the best plan for your circumstances – battery size vs load, solar production etc.
But what about this?
Do I pay $1637? Or $1929?
No. That’s just a standard calculation every energy provider is required to display for comparison. If you have a battery and solar you should be able to get to $0, if not -$400 to -$1000 per year. Read on.
Should I bind my battery to Globird?
Binding means you can pass control of your battery to Globird in Auto mode. I’ve not done this as it’s not necessary to get the ZeroHero benefits. Your options are:
a) Bind and Auto mode – Globird controls your battery
b) Bind and Manual mode – you control your battery via the Globird app
c) don’t bind, use the Sigenergy app yourself. That is what this guide assumes.
Example screenshot from the Globird app with a bound battery:
Setting up your battery for ZeroHero
Here’s how my system is configured to take advantage of the three-hour-free-power period, and export during the Super Export period. Before you configure your system you need:
- Battery installed and running – your installer should do this!
- Exports enabled on your smart meter – your installer should handle this, but if not, hassle them so they put the request in to the grid company (PowerCor for me in Victoria), and then onto your electricity retailer e.g. AGL. It is best to wait till your system is installed, inspected and exporting to your current retailer before you switch retailers.
- Maximum export set to something like 5kW, which is a installer-controlled setting. You can see what it is by going to Settings and finding Grid Export Power Limit. Mine was set to 0.5kW so I had it changed to 5kW by the installer. Your energy provider may not permit 5kW, in which case you will not be able to export 3 x 5kWh = 15 kWh to the grid for maximum ZeroHero benefit.
4. Consider your minimum battery percentage in case of blackout. Let’s say that in the event of a blackout you can go down to 0.8kW per hour and you work on the power being out for 5 hours. So, 0.8 x 5 = 4kWh minimum battery capacity. If you have a 24kWh battery then you would not discharge below 17%, calculated as 4/24 = 0.17.
OK with that all done you’re good to go:
- Open the Sigenery app or log into the website https://app-aus.sigencloud.com/
- Click “Current Mode” bottom left, probably set to Self Consumption
- Click on the light blue Current Mode box under the Search Bar.
- Go to Import at the bottom and enter this code: 83lSOKSnhK which imports a profile I created called Globird ZeroHero 1800-2100
- That now imports my setup which you need to edit to suit your needs.
What’s in the profile?
Here is how it is set up:
0000 – 1100 – Self Consumption – this means that the system will use solar first, then battery, and avoid grid power unless absolutely necessary. The old plan offered $0.03 FIT till 1000, but that’s now gone.
1100 – 1400 – Battery Charging from grid – here imports from the grid to power your load and charge the battery, supplementing your solar with grid power. Useful if your solar won’t get your battery back to 100% during the day, and three hours of free power is great anyway! This is also the period to schedule high-power devices like washing machines, dishwashers and charge your electric cars. Once your battery is charged you’ll then export excess solar to the grid but you won’t get any FIT. So why would you do that? Because everyone exporting solar at this point is how those free hours are offered in the first place, so you’re just being community minded and helping yourself too. And what else will you do with your solar once your battery is at 100% and your load is met?
1400 – 1800 – Self Consumption again. From 1600-1800 you get $0.02 FIT. You could potentially dump battery power into the grid during this period, but it’s not usually worth it as the 1800-2100 ZeroHero period is much more lucrative so save your energy till then. In any case, Self Consumption will send any excess solar energy once load has been met to the grid, and as you should be at or near to 100% SoC you’ll probably get some FIT revenue during this period.
1800 – 2100 – Discharge to grid minimum battery SoC of 40%. I have a 24kWh battery and 40% is 9.6kWh which is enough for me to run the aircon/heater and various appliances through to 11:00 next morning, allowing for a little bit of solar. You can discharge a maximum of 15kWh, so for most people that is 3 hours at 5 kWh each. Very important not to draw any grid power to get the $1 bonus for no grid use.
2100 – 2300 – Self Consumption again, you may wish to export any excess power as the FIT is $0.02. This is why the profile has two periods, 2100-2300, and 2300-0000, both set to Self Consumption.
2300 – 2400 – Self Consumption, FIT drops to $0.
You can achieve more or less the same results using Battery Automation, Grid Automation and TOU (Time Of Use). The profile above uses Battery Automation.
What you need to edit in the profile:
From the main screen tap the Current Mode square bottom-left, then scroll down to Battery Automation which will look like this, showing the various time periods in a 24-hour window and what you want your system to do for each period.
What you definitely need to edit is:
Minimum battery % during the ZeroHero export period 1800 to 2100 – after 2100 you want to have sufficient power to get you through to 1100 next morning. So you might wish to set a limit of 30%, 40%…whatever works for you. It is much better to export a little less and be sure than export a lot then need to draw from the grid. The screenshot below shows it set to 40%.
You can of course edit whatever else you like in the profile, and re-import it if you make a mistake. I suggest making a copy of the profile before you edit it, and once done, monitor closely for 24 hours to check it is working the way you intended.
The difference between discharge cutoff to grid, and minimum battery %
The discharge cutoff to grid as per the profile is the battery percentage exporting stops at. In the above example that’s 40% of my 24kWh = 9.6kWh which is enough for me to run the house from 2100 to 1100. At this point, grid export stops…but the battery will still power the house.
There is also a second limit, Battery Backup SOC, and that is the percentage that the battery will not discharge below. You set this so that if there is a blackout you always have that % of battery available at a minimum – when that % is reached the system will use grid power, reserving the battery. This is what it looks like:
That’s independent of the profile setting to stop exporting to grid at a certain percentage.
A few more points:
- Sigenergy systems have a Storm Watch facility which monitors the weather forecast and if a storm is forecast, pre-emptively charges the battery from grid to 100% or whatever you choose. You may wish to change that.
- There is no need to only discharge the battery to 20% and only charge to 80%. Sigenergy have thought of that effect on batteries and they are designed for it – the 0% you see doesn’t mean the battery is actually flat, and the 100% you see isn’t actually 100% of battery capacity.
How do I export only a small amount of power to the grid during ZeroHero to ensure my usage is 0 and therefore qualify for the $1 ZeroHero bonus?
A Sigenergy system set to Self Consumption should draw nothing from the grid if there is sufficient battery capacity for the load. You can ignore the little 0.01kW pulses, Globird is smart enough to have a clause in the T&Cs which says that provided you draw less tha 0.03kWh per hour they count that as zero.
If you want to export only a little during the ZeroHero window then set Maximum Discharging Power from BAT to Grid (kW) to 0.5 or something small, like this where it is set to 0.5. Maximum discharging power is general discharge including to load.
How do I know my Globird profile is working?
A minute before a time cutover period start watching the app, for example at 10:59. You’ll see the app display change and a huge grid import begin, and at 1758 start watching for the export. Whenever you make changes it is a good idea to closely monitor for 24 hours to check it’s working. This screenshot from the Sig web portal shows my house charging at 11:15. Solar is used and topped up from the grid to meet the battery charge needs and house load.
Also take a look at your Power Metrics, Grid Service graph:
This shows your use of the grid, either import or export. I’m currently on an older ZeroHero plan so I export a bit from 0830 to 1000 which you can see on the left of the graph, then from 1000-1100 there’s no FIT on my plan so I use all my solar to charge the battery. Then at 1100 there’s a massive grid import during the 3 hours free, after which the battery is at 100% and I export to the grid. From 1800 to 2000 (old plan, now it’s 2100) I export 2 x 5kW = 10kWh.
Here’s the graph again with all data:
TOU (Time of Use) vs Battery Automation vs Grid Automation
The Sigenergy system is extremely powerful and there’s more than one way to achieve pretty much anything when it comes to scheduling your battery charging and power use/export. The profile above uses Battery Automation, but you could also use TOU or Time of Use. However, there is no way to share a TOU profile at the moment, so I’ve used Battery Automation.
TOU is there if you want to manage costs via the app; for example $0.02 FIT at one point, $0.15 another, grid power $0 this time, $0.41 another. That’s what TOU means. If you want that, then replicate the profile above in TOU and plug in your numbers. But otherwise battery automation will do the job too. You could also probably do it with grid automation as well.
Did you know…
- you can log into the Sigenergy website and get the same information as on the app, AND download your usage data! https://app-aus.sigencloud.com/
- you can also log into the Globird website and get usage data from the Usage view. https://www.globirdenergy.com.au/
Will I make money from Critical Events?
Critical events are short-term periods that demand immediate power. If you have lots of spare battery power it can be very advantageous to dump power during these periods as the FIT is relatively high. However, I would not count on any such events as they are rare and appear to be coming rarer. I would do your maths based only on the normal day scenarios as described here, and if any critical events happen treat that as a bonus.
Will I make money from Globird referrals?
The $50 for me, $50 for the referrer deal only gives you a credit against Globird services. It cannot be redeemed as a cash payment, unlike a Globird bill credit you will hopefully earn every day. If you find this guide useful and plan to sign up, or have recently done so, please contact me a referral code.
Will those tiny little imports and pings wreck my $1 no-use ZeroHero bonus?
No, provided they are less than 0.03kWh per hour which is usually the case with Sigenergy. “Zero” accounts for those pulses.
What about Amber, FlowPower and others?
I’ve not tried Amber, but from what I can see there’s a lot of people leaving Amber for Globird.
Amber promises highs, but there’s also lows, and it seems you need to have a pretty big battery ready to dump a lot of energy into the grid at no notice. I have a 24kWh battery and don’t have a spare say 15kWh at any given time, so I prefer the consistent return of Globird even if there won’t be any impressive payday peaks. There are various other retailers and plans such as LocalVolts – not tried them either, I’m only writing this to help others with Globird/Sigenergy, not provide a detailed list of options.
FlowPower offers up to $0.35 per kWh 1730 to 1930, 2 hours so $0.35 x 2 hours x 10 kWh = $7.00 assuming you can export 10kWh, but there’s no free-power period. FlowPower would suit those who can reliably charge their battery to 100% from solar every day. The SolarQuotes website has some good general house/battery/solar information.
Found this useful?
If you want to sign up to Globird message me for a referral code.
