Commercial solar installations are systems with capacity to generate more than 7.46kW.
A guide to commercial solar, including business case information and checklist, is available from the Clean Energy Council website.
Your solar installation must have automatic protection equipment to protect your plant and facilities against things like power surges and outages.
All commercial solar installations must have the capacity to allow us to remotely disconnect and reconnect your solar from the network, to make sure the network remains stable.
It is your responsibility to maintain your solar infrastructure in a safe operating condition, including all protective devices.
Step 1: connection application
Your installer will complete a solar application form with details about your new solar design. We will assess the application to make sure it meets our technical standards and requirements.
Our assessment considers the impact that commercial solar connections will have on the distribution network and we will only approve applications if the installation does not affect the stability of the network. We may charge you if we need to do extensive studies on the network impacts of your proposed system.
We may also need to check that the current infrastructure will be able to manage the extra generation. If we need to make upgrades, this will add extra time to the connection process, but we will make every effort to do it as quickly as possible. We will charge you for the cost of upgrades.
There is no guarantee that your application will be approved, as our primary responsibility is to ensure the safe operation of the distribution network.
View the commercial solar connection application form.
Step 2: connection agreement
If we approve your solar installation, a connection and power purchase agreement will be sent to you; you must sign and return it to BSImailbox@hydro.com.au. The feed-in tariff is set on a case-by-case basis for commercial solar installations.
Step 3: installation of your solar
Your system must be installed by a Clean Energy Council accredited installer who also holds a Tasmanian Electrical Contractor’s License.
Once installed, your solar installer will submit Electrical Works Request (EWR) and Certificate of Electrical Compliance (CEC) documentation to Hydro Tasmania.
Once we have your signed connection and power purchase agreement, EWR and CEC, work will be scheduled to install a digital import-export meter at your premises.
This may only take a few working days, but during extreme weather events or outages it may take longer. Your solar energy system starts working as soon as the meter is installed.
Your solar installer will install the inverter, which is the device that converts your generated solar power to feed it back into the grid. It is important that your inverter is switched off until your new meter has been installed. If you switch it on beforehand, you are in breach of the connection and power purchase agreement and may forfeit the agreement. You cannot start earning the feed-in tariff until metering has been completed. View a list of frequently asked questions, the commercial solar application form and a residential solar checklist in the solar installation pack (735 KB PDF).