Frequently Asked Questions
The NRN Smart Grid, explained for homeowners, landlords and tenants.
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NRN (National Renewable Network) builds and operates Australia’s first residential Smart Grid. Our mission is making energy cheaper, cleaner and fairer. Depending on what your home needs, we install a combination of solar, a home battery and an EV charger, always tied together by the NRN Smart Link, on homes across a suburb, and we own and operate that equipment for its full life. You host it, and we pay you every month for hosting it.
The Smart Grid is the electricity network you already have, with a layer of digital intelligence added on top, so that generation, storage and demand can co-ordinate in real time. The old grid sends power one way from a few large power stations and cannot store much or respond quickly. The Smart Grid adds sensors, software, connectivity and storage so power flows both ways and millions of small decisions are co-ordinated automatically, second by second.
The consumer Smart Grid is the part that lives behind the meter, inside your home. NRN installs any combination of the following four things, sized to what your home actually needs:
- Solar panels on the roof to generate power.
- A home battery to store it for evening use.
- Where it suits the home, an EV charger in the driveway, ready when the car arrives.
- The NRN Smart Link, a small box installed in every home that connects it to the Smart Grid and tells everything when to run.
Whatever combination is installed, NRN owns and operates all of it, twenty-four hours a day. You do not own it, maintain it or pay for it up front. You host it.
You do not have to manage anything, and you do not need to track where your power is coming from at any given moment. In the background, the AI controller behind the NRN Smart Link decides what your equipment does, moment to moment, in concert with thousands of other homes, generating, storing or drawing from the grid in whatever way is most valuable at the time. The point is not where any particular kilowatt comes from. The point is that this co-ordination lets NRN and your energy retailer lower the cost of serving your home, and that lower cost is passed on to you as a lower electricity bill. NRN does the work, in real time, across thousands of homes at once.
When thousands of homes can store, generate and adjust their demand on cue, the wider grid stops needing every gas and coal station to pick up the slack on hot evenings. Blackouts get rarer, voltage gets steadier, and more renewables can be absorbed without the system breaking. Storage sitting right next to where power is made and used is far more useful than storage hundreds of kilometres away, which is what makes a local, suburb-by-suburb Smart Grid valuable as infrastructure, not just convenient as a product.
Nothing up front for the system itself. NRN funds, installs, owns and operates the Smart Grid Equipment. Some properties need additional works to be installation-ready (for example a switchboard upgrade); if so, that is quoted at the site inspection and you can walk away before signing if it does not suit you.
Every home is assessed before a single panel is ordered. Our engineers use shading analysis, azimuth modelling and twelve months of your actual consumption to size the system to your home. Based on that assessment, your home is qualified into one of four tiers: Smart Grid Home, Smart Grid Family, Smart Grid Plus or Smart Grid Max. You do not choose the tier; your home qualifies into it. The result is a system sized for your home.
The Smart Grid Credit is a payment NRN makes to you every month for hosting the Smart Grid Equipment. It applies on the specific Smart Grid Plans that NRN makes available through its partner retailers, not on every plan in the market. While you are on one of those plans, the Credit lands as a visible line item on your electricity bill, from the very first bill onwards. This is one of our four Always promises: Always Paying.
Two things work together on the same bill, as long as you are on one of the Smart Grid Plans NRN offers through its partner retailers. That plan costs less than your old plan. On top of that, the Smart Grid Credit lands on the bill every month. Across the year, you come out better off. That is the Always Better Off promise. For the exact figure for your address, take Your Smart Grid Check at nrn.com.au; the personalised estimate is shown once you enter your address.
NRN does. Our model is called Third-Party Ownership (TPO), the same model used by large-scale infrastructure: a professional operator owns and runs the asset, and you benefit from cheaper service. Because we own and operate at scale, we finance installs at far lower rates than a personal loan, and that cost advantage is passed through to you as cheaper energy. If anything ever breaks, it is our problem, not yours.
You are paid before any installer comes near your home. If you walk away on day 30, you keep what we paid you, and nothing is installed. You sign your Smart Grid Host Agreement during the trial, and it preserves your day-30 right to walk away. Proof comes first; equipment comes second.
Yes. The Smart Grid Credit and your Smart Grid Plan are available while you are with one of NRN’s partner retailers (in Campbelltown, that is Alinta Energy). If you move to a retailer that is not an NRN partner, your home is no longer linked with the rest of the Smart Grid, so the Smart Grid Plan and the Credit stop. The Smart Grid Equipment stays on your home and keeps generating and storing power for you.
You are never left without power. If the solar or battery is unavailable for any reason, your home automatically draws electricity from the grid, exactly as it does today. NRN monitors every system 24/7 and handles all repairs, maintenance, replacement and warranty. This is the Always Managed promise; you do not have to think about it.
The Smart Grid Equipment is a capital improvement that travels with the property, so it works in your favour at sale: a professionally installed and maintained solar and battery system the new owner gets to keep. Before settlement you choose what happens:
- Purchase the system (most common): you or the buyer pays the buy-out price set out in your agreement, and ownership transfers at settlement. Most people roll this into the property settlement, so it comes out of the sale proceeds rather than your pocket.
- Have the system removed: NRN arranges and you pay for removal at the cost stated in your agreement, and the equipment is returned to NRN.
If no choice is made before settlement, the agreement defaults to purchase at the buy-out price. NRN records its ownership by lodging a caveat on the property title; it is standard, it comes off cleanly when the system is bought out at settlement, and your conveyancer will know how to handle it.
Yes. The Smart Grid Equipment is Always Yours to Own. You can buy it out at any time at the prevailing buy-out price, which drops on a pre-agreed schedule and is shown on your NRN account. At the end of the 12-year agreement you have the option to take full ownership, by which point it has been professionally maintained for its whole life and has years of operation remaining.
No. The Smart Grid Credit and the buy-out are two completely separate things. The Credit is a monthly payment that lands on your electricity bill. The buy-out price drops on its own pre-agreed schedule, independently. The Credit is not an instalment and does not pay down the system.
NRN makes money by reducing costs for energy retailers, not by charging you. When your home generates and stores most of its own power, your retailer buys far less from the wholesale market and pays fewer network charges to serve you. NRN charges the retailer a daily licence fee per home, which is much less than the retailer saves, so the retailer passes the rest on to you as a cheaper plan. You pay less, the retailer pays less, and NRN earns its fee.
Once you are connected, your Welcome Box includes Smart Grid Invitations you can give to neighbours while your suburb’s window is open. The Smart Grid comes to a suburb for a defined period and then the team moves on, so an Invitation is a genuine way to get someone in before the window closes.
NRN installs and operates the Smart Grid Equipment on your rental at no upfront cost, the same as for an owner-occupier. It lets you offer your tenants energy as part of the tenancy, with the home running on locally generated, stored power and drawing from the grid only when needed.
Nothing up front for the system. As with any property, additional installation-readiness works (if needed) are quoted at the site inspection, and you can walk away before signing.
- A solar and battery system added to your property at no upfront cost, professionally maintained for its full life.
- A genuine point of difference when listing: a home with energy included tends to attract and retain quality tenants.
- The system is yours to keep at the end of the agreement, adding lasting value to the asset.
NRN acts as your agent and handles the energy side end to end: energy retailer interaction, billing setup and direct debit, tenant onboarding and offboarding, usage calculations and collections, and any non-payment escalation. You are not chasing energy payments or managing the system.
The Smart Grid Equipment stays with the property and keeps running. NRN manages the offboarding of the departing tenant and the onboarding of the next one, so the energy arrangement carries across tenancies without you having to reset anything.
Power is never interrupted. If the solar or battery is unavailable, the home automatically draws from the grid and your tenants are never left without power. NRN manages all repairs and maintenance.
The agreement runs for 12 years. Across that period NRN owns, operates and maintains the equipment. At the end, you have the option to take full ownership of a system that still has years of life left in it.
The system travels with the property as a capital improvement, the same as for an owner-occupier. At settlement it is either bought out at the buy-out price (usually rolled into the sale rather than paid out of pocket) or removed. NRN records its ownership with a caveat on title that comes off cleanly at buy-out, and works with you, the buyer, your conveyancer and your agent to keep it straightforward.
Your home is fitted with NRN Smart Grid Equipment: a combination of solar, battery and, where it suits, an EV charger, all connected by the NRN Smart Link, owned and operated by NRN. As a tenant you get the benefit of that equipment. If you are on one of NRN’s partner retailer plans, you also receive the Smart Grid Plan pricing and, where the plan includes it, the Smart Grid Credit on your bill, the same benefits a homeowner Host gets. NRN manages the energy side for you.
You can choose your energy retailer. If you choose one of NRN’s partner retailers, you receive the partner Smart Grid Plan and the Smart Grid Credit where the plan includes it, so your bill is lower. If you choose a retailer that is not an NRN partner, you still get the benefit of the Smart Grid Equipment on your home, but you pay NRN a system access fee for using it. Either way, your usage is visible to you so there are no surprises.
Yes. The Smart Grid puts your usage on a single dashboard in real time, so you can see when your use is trending high before a bill arrives and manage it. Bill shock stops being part of the deal.
You are never left without power. If the solar or battery is unavailable, the home automatically draws electricity from the grid. NRN monitors the system 24/7 and handles all repairs, so there is nothing for you to arrange.
The Smart Grid Equipment belongs to the property, not to you, so it stays when you leave. NRN manages your offboarding and closes out your usage, so there is nothing for you to disconnect or transfer.
The Smart Link uses your usage data only to run the system and show you your own dashboard. NRN does not sell your personal energy data, and you can ask us any question about how your information is used.
Still have a question?
We are always happy to help. For anything about the Smart Grid Equipment, your bill, or the terms of your agreement, contact NRN Support on 1800 595 348, or take Your Smart Grid Check at nrn.com.au to see what hosting the Smart Grid would look like for your home.