We first installed a Plico System on our house in 2020 after initially being attracted to the option of having a lithium battery to run our house at night whilst the solar generated the energy during the day. The added bonus was seamless protection from blackouts..... often, we don't realize there has been a blackout until we look outside and notice everyone else's lights are out! We are now 3 years on, are a regular 2 adults and 2 kids and a dog family with a 4 x 2 home in the suburbs. We have installed a second system on another house. We were able to transfer the original system to the new owners when we sold the first property and initiated the installation of the second system during the settlement of our next home. We have been really happy with the service, support and operation of our Plico system..... here is our journey over that time. First we looked at the cost of the system (@ $40 per week) and compared that to our bi-monthly power bill to determine if the system would work for us financially - ie our power bills needed to be more than $320 per bill cycle for it to work just on the basic comparison, then there are the blackout benefits and being a shareholder in a Virtual Power Plant company were minor considerations initially as it seemed this was a long way off... more about that later! Interestingly, the biggest game changer in our house was the phone app that is available once the system is installed because it gives you "live" data on the performance of the system and your power usage in an easy-to-read format - I often show people how our system is operating on my mobile. I went from being not interested in power use and lights/ appliances being left on to suddenly being able to see exactly how power is used and by what.... it gives you instant control and a choice on managing power use in your home by visibility - with the net benefit of reducing household costs, which are increasingly important with the cost-of-living increases ATM. Having this instant visibility we were quickly (as in overnight! ) able to adapt and make minor changes to the way we used power in the house to maximize the efficiency of the system to our benefit, things like using the dishwasher during the day (rather than at night) or using the "delay start" function on appliances allows the solar array to do its job during the day helps preserve your battery for running the house at night - thus further reducing power needed from the grid. Now; I realize that you can do some of these things with any regular solar system (you don't have to have a Plico system) but it was the visibility and having the battery to run the house at night that made the difference. Things like being able to see instantly if the kids have left the bathroom heater lights on, or other heavy power usage appliances before you go to bed by just checking the app help reduce power use and in turn household costs. Our Plico system with the battery effectively allows you to almost be "off the grid" (technically you are/need to be still connected) - it just minimizes the power you need from the grid and reduces your costs. To provide real context to all of this; we are currently still $244 in credit on our Synergy bill from the $400 that the WA Government gave each household back in July 2022. On the last two bills, the only costs have been the connection fee (unavoidable) and GST apart from that our power generated and exported and minimal requirements from the grid have been offset by the battery providing our power during the night. The bonus of this will be insulation from increases in energy costs into the future as we are self-producing 99% of our power during summer and between 80-90% during winter. One of the first things we did (like within weeks) once we were connected to Plico was upgrade the battery from 7.2kw/hr to 9.6kw/hr - (for an additional $3.50 per week) because I could see that our battery was fully charged by 11 am on a sunny day and after that, we were exporting to the grid for a negligible return. The key element with a Solar / Battery system is storage - the more you store and the bigger your battery the longer it lasts through the night and the less you need from the grid. Fortunately, when we installed the second Plico system the battery came with a standard upgrade of 10.4kw/hr which was an instant bonus - this size adequately runs our house through the night (including boiling the kettle for a cuppa at night) More recently Plico completed negotiations with the WA government as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) to provide stability to the grid by electronically controlling Plico batteries already installed in households as part of a distributed network; I initially thought that this would never happen as it takes a long time to negotiate these types of arrangements, but after watching the energy crisis on the eastern seaboard unfolding and the cost of energy increases in addition to the commitment of the government to building stored capacity for the future energy supply it has all finally gone from an idea to reality. The VPP has a generous net benefit to us as a householder in terms of paying us to access the battery, but also reimbursing us for power used whilst supporting the grid – it’s a clever and forward-thinking initiative. Overall we have found that the service, support, installation and operation of the system have been seamless and trouble-free and I've written this to capture and share our experience as a "regular family" - it has been a really easy process in which we are seeing the rewards.