Only 24% of Australian battery owners have joined a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). That’s from the ACCC’s latest electricity market report, and the reaction has been fairly uniform: this is a problem, and the fix is to make VPPs more appealing. Better consumer protections. Simpler products. Minimum technical standards. Probably more VPP rebates.
 But there’s another way to read a number like that.
Continuing the 2026 Installer’s Choice Awards, we asked Australia’s solar installers a simple question:
“Which home battery would you choose for your own home?”
These are the people designing, installing and servicing battery systems every day, so they have a front-row seat to what works well in the real world. And Australian Consumer Law holds the installer liable for the units’ warranty and performance for 10 years plus. So I reckon their opinion is what counts.
From the start of this month, most energy retailers are required to offer plans offering three free hours of daytime electricity. We’ve put three Solar Sharer offers under the microscope to see the devil in the detail – just how much extra customers will be paying in daily supply charges and peak rates.
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The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) has suspended 21 solar companies from the small-scale solar rebate scheme, moved to ban a retailer for falsely claiming installations were complete, and issued a warning to installers over fake verification photos.
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With the recent rises in fixed daily charges, the retail price of electricity means a lot of people are going off. I understand the anger – I’m paying it too – but I have to reiterate the answer isn’t going off grid.
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Home batteries can lower electricity bills, and those benefits can be even greater when batteries are coordinated through virtual power plants (VPPs). But a new report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) points out that asking people to hand over some control of a battery they’ve paid for requires confidence that it will […]
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Last week the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published a 114 page report on the electricity market which uncovered the following insights: People bought lots of batteries after the battery rebate came out People with batteries have lower bills than people without People on VPPs have even lower bills.
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With Australia in the grip of winter, a new breed of free daytime electricity plans have arrived just in time to keep your home warm on the cheap. Here’s how to time your electric heating – and cooling – to make the most of the Solar Sharer Offer’s free electricity period.
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I’m a man with a mission. And that mission is to decide what size battery my sister should get, while taking into account that she’ll be topping it up with free daytime electricity. If I give her a bad answer, I will still be a man — but it may become much more difficult for […]
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Home batteries are often promoted as a way to keep the lights on when the grid goes down. But according to a new report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), they may increasingly be helping keep the grid up in the first place.
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