  Australia's world-leading penetration of distributed solar photovoltaics (PV)
is now impacting power system security and as a result how customers can use
and export their own PV-generated energy. Several programs of Australian
regulatory reform for distributed energy resources (DER) have emphasised the
importance of placing consumers at the centre of any energy transition, but
this has occurred against a haphazard backdrop of proposals for solar export
taxes, updated inverter standards, and diminishing feed-in-tariffs. Absent from
the discussion is a coherent espousal of reasonable consumer expectations with
practical technical definitions of how these may be applied. Whilst American
legislation has enshrined initial rights to connect PV, they do not consider
the evolution of rights in a DER-dominated future. This paper proposes a first
attempt at a 'DER Bill of Rights and Responsibilities' for both passive and
active participation in energy markets, using Australia as an example
jurisdiction. The intent is that clarity on rights to self-consumption and
passive participation will support customer trust in the guiderails of active
DER integration and control. Guiding principles are presented with practical
definitions referencing existing instruments including inverter standards,
network connection agreements, the reliability standard, and central ancillary
service markets. We highlight how these proposed rights are already being
breached regularly in Australia, before outlining a pathway to enshrine them
for a DER-dominated future with broad sector endorsement. These questions are
critical for Australia to address now; it is likely other countries will be
required to do so in the near future.
