Hi all, I’ve recently had solar installed (despite starting this forum years ago, I’ve only just been in a position to!), and decided to go with Amber Electric as my retailer. I thought I would share my early experience, and would love to hear from others. I will update this thread as I get more data and, perhaps add a battery and EV to my setup.
First of all, Amber is not for the faint of heart! Unlike a standard retailer, Amber charges a flat rate of $19 a month for using them, and passes on the real wholesale cost of electricity in 30 minute intervals. Averaged out over the year of course the wholesale cost of electricity is far lower than the retail cost, however, I signed up in the middle of winter and was in for a rude shock. The wholesale cost in the depths of winter in the morning and evening peaks was eye watering. $2/kWh was not uncommon, whereas retail rates would be 15% of that. Prices could also spike to $15/kWh+ for very short periods.
Why Choose Amber Electric?
I’m a bit of an energy nerd, and particularly interested in how we can reduce our usage of fossil fuels. This is what appeals to me about Amber’s model. Passing on the actual cost of electricity forces consumers to use less energy at peak times, when we generally have more fossil fuels in the grid. It also reduces the strain on electricity infrastructure, which is where a lot of our costs go to - ensuring that we can supply power for that small % of times throughout the year when everyone is trying to heat and cool their house in peak winter and summer. Amber’s model also changes the equation for consumers who want to store their solar energy when there is low demand, and use it or export it in high demand periods when there are less renewables in the grid. More below.
For the majority of people who are focused on lowering electricity bills, is Amber a good choice? That all depends on your setup.
Amber without solar or battery
I don’t think even Amber recommends to switch without having solar or batteries. You may end up even or slightly better off compared to a standard retailer over the course of a year, but the price variability and stress of having to warm or cool your house despite there being a price spike of 10-100% probably isn’t worth it.
Amber with solar only
This is my setup at the moment. See the screenshot below from Amber’s website. The feed-in tariff (FiT) for solar is not very good in Australia at the moment. That’s because Australia has the highest uptake of rooftop solar in the world 
. The downside of that is that when the sun is shining, and the weather is mild, there is an oversupply of energy. The FiT often goes to a negative amount during these peak production hours, meaning you get charged for exporting to the grid. Amber does have a ‘SmartShift’ feature, which means they can take control of your inverter (depending on your inverter model) and ramp it down so that you don’t get charged for exporting.
However, it is disappointing when the sun is shining and you could be producing lots of glorious solar power, but have to shut your power plant off. This is what is really driving my decision to want to add battery storage.
Amber with solar and batteries
This is really where Amber’s model shines. For a long time we (at Clean Energy Reviews) have not recommended getting a battery with your solar system, because the finances don’t add up. However, the equation changes quite significantly when as a consumer you have access to wholesale electricity prices. In this case, the payback period of a battery significantly reduces, because a) you are able to store and later use that solar energy (that as I mentioned above is not valuable when exported in the middle of the day) when energy costs are high, and b) able to export excess power to the grid when electricity prices are high.
I will share more here later when I have better data on how that equation changes by using Amber.
Amber with EV
In the next 12 months we should see vehicle to grid (V2G) feature come online in a big way. That means you will be able to use your EV as a battery. This has huge potential, and something I’m very interested in myself. If you have an EV with 60kWh of storage capacity and it mostly sits in your driveway, that’s a huge amount an energy storage that you can theoretically send to the grid in those peak times. As in the battery equation above, the amount you can get paid for exporting energy when export tariffs are high can go a long way to offset the cost of your battery (in this case your car).
Screenshots from the Amber app
Please share your experience using Amber, or comparison retailers. Are their similar options in other countries?