Victoria’s Essential Services Commission (ESC) released its draft decision on minimum solar feed in tariff rates for 2025/26 on Friday – and system owners won’t be happy.
Each year the ESC consults on minimum rates electricity retailers are allowed to pay solar owners for the surplus energy they export to the grid. It provides a few sets of numbers – a flat/single “all day” rate and two time- varying sets of feed-in rates.
Proposed Flat Rate Solar Feed-In Tariff 2025/26
Currently, the minimum flat rate for Victoria’s feed-in tariff is 3.3 cents per kilowatt hour. But from July 1, the ESC has proposed a rate of just 0.04 c/kWh. Here’s how the flat rate has tracked in recent years:
- 2025-26 (proposed): 0.04c
- 2024-25: 3.3c
- 2023-24: 4.9c
- 2022-23: 5.2c
- 2021-22: 6.7c
- 2020-21: 10.2c
Proposed Time Varying Rates 2025/26
Currently, time varying feed-in tariff rate options range from 2.8 cents – 7.6 cents, and 2.1 cents – 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour depending on when the energy is exported. For the 2025/26 financial year, the ESC has proposed between 0 cents and 7.5 cents and 0 cents and 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
The 0c per kilowatt hour applies to:
- Weekdays: 7 am to 3 pm, 9 pm to 10 pm. Weekends: 7 am to 10 pm for option 1.
- Every day from 10 am to 2 pm for option 2.
The Commission stresses all these are minimums, and retailers can offer feed-in tariffs above the minimum amounts. But looking at the SolarQuotes electricity plan comparison tool, most retailers offering the flat rate are just providing the minimum, with several exceptions.
Why The Big Cuts?
It’s the same old story – solar power pushing down wholesale electricity prices. The Commission says the number of rooftop solar systems in the state has increased by 76 per cent since 2019; from approximately 446,000 systems to 787,000 – helped along by Victoria’s solar panel rebate.
“This has both increased supply and reduced demand for electricity during the middle of the day, resulting in decreasing value of daytime solar exports,” says the Commission.
I took a look at wholesale electricity prices in Victoria on Friday between the hours of 10am and 2pm, and it worked out at an average of 3.2c per kilowatt hour. But that was just one day and the ESC says further wholesale prices declines are forecast, especially during daylight hours.
The ESC says its pricing methodology hasn’t changed from previous years; which considers wholesale electricity, costs of solar exports, avoided costs faced by retailers, along with other social and environmental factors.
Have Your Say
As mentioned, the 2025/26 rates are proposed at this stage, not a final decision. And no doubt many solar owners will have strong opinions. A consultation on the decision has kicked off and you can share your thoughts with the ESC via Engage Victoria until 31 January. You can provide feedback in a survey on the Engage Victoria website; or submit documents.
The full draft decision can be viewed here. A final decision on minimum feed-in tariffs for the next financial year is to be published by 28 February 2025.
0c Feed-In Tariff – Impact On System Payback
To get an idea of the impact of what is effectively a zero-cent feed-in tariff, try SQ’s solar calculator. As an example, using the calculator with its default settings aside from postcode and system price, a 6.6kW solar system with a 3c FiT installed in Melbourne achieves simple payback in around 6 years, 9 months. At zero cents, it’s about 9 years.
What Now For Victorian Solar Owners?
Aside from participating in the consultation, the outcome of which is unlikely to shift the needle much (short of some miracle), there are other actions to consider – some more attainable than others.
Going *Entirely* Off-Grid
Whenever announcements of feed-in tariff cuts are made, they are invariably followed by some system owners declaring they’ll go entirely off-grid. But that’s a *really* expensive way to protest – expect to pay tens of thousands for a system done right that won’t leave you in the dark, and more time spent monitoring it. As well as batteries, bear in mind you’ll likely need an expensive, noisy, polluting backup generator that will need regular and costly servicing.
Home Batteries
Others will start thinking more about home batteries but staying grid-connected; the financial viability of which varies depending on circumstances. Batteries provide other benefits too, including blackout protection (if you get the right one), which can be invaluable to those living in areas where mains grid electricity supply is often interrupted.
To really pin down whether a home battery can provide payback within a timeframe acceptable to you, try SolarQuotes’ battery calculator. You’ll need to upload your smart meter data (instructions here) to get accurate battery savings and payback based on your real-life 12 month electricity usage.
While there are zero interest battery loans available from Solar Victoria, there are no state-level subsidies or federal support (at this point); so it can still be a pretty pricey exercise.
Water Heating
There’s another form of energy storage that can be much cheaper to implement. Water heating is the second-biggest energy user in the typical Australian home after space heating and cooling. If you have a gas hot water system, it might be time to consider shifting to an electric model, particularly if your current system is nearing end of life. Set it on a timer (unless those smarts are already built-in) or also get a PV diverter and use your surplus solar energy to heat water during the day for use at night and the following morning.
If you want to take things a step further and spend more money, consider a heat pump hot water system and put it on a timer. The good news is there is financial support in Victoria – for example, upgrading a gas hot water heater to a heat pump can provide a discount of around $490 under the Victorian Energy Upgrades program. If it’s replacing an electric hot water heater, you can get up to $840.
Time-Shifting Other Loads
Nothing new here – maximising self-consumption is the name of the game, and has been for a long time. In the Essential Services Commission’s words:
“Households can maximise their savings by shifting their electricity usage to daylight hours – when their solar system is producing electricity. By doing this, households are not paid feed-in tariffs but avoid higher retail prices.”
But that will be of little help to those who cannot load shift more than they already are.
Some solar owners may even decide to zero export limit their systems to stick it to the man so to speak – and to each, their own.
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My favourite line in this article is
“It’s the same old story – solar power pushing down wholesale electricity prices.”
We should celebrate the fact that it IS an old story – we have done a good thing with our adoption of rooftop solar.
And it’s a good thing that the wholesale price is so low when the Sun’s out. Do I wish I still had the 66 cents FIT I started out on? Of course I do. Do I wish the market reflected the injection of low cost electricity with lower prices? Of course I do.
But in what universe does it make sense to continue encouraging the adoption of solar generated power when that adoption has been brilliantly successful?
We’re being steered towards what looks to one of, and it may be the best, possible outcome for the planet (and our kids and their kids …) – a renewable solar based power supply.
The next step on that path looks like finding a way to shift the availability of that energy to times when it’s expensive to buy. Storage is the next step on this path we’ve started on.
Bring it on I say. Even if it’s not where this transition story finishes, we can look the generations that follow us on the face and say “We played our small part in reducing the catastrophe we were facing.”
Well put Ray,
Storage is the next step and combining that task with electric mobility & hot water is a no brainer. The real trick is going to be working out that we can’t consume our way out of this problem.
Exactly that is what these wankers are trying to do is get everyone to buy a battery but none of this crap will keep industry running
I doubt industry is overly concerned with a glut of almost free energy.
The Australian Industry Group disagrees with your assessment and calls for speeding up the rollout of this ‘crap’. They are also open to talking about nuclear, but correctly point out that has nothing to do with securing cheap reliable energy now and that discussion is about some future Australia.
The AI Group certainly aren’t calling for preserving our fossil-fueled past.
What rubbish.
We have virtually been forced to take up solar because the govt and afew governments before have decided that we in Australia can still drill for gas. So then we have given AWAY nearly half of our gas to the Chinese companies.They don’t pay anything for the free gas they get..but then sell it back to Australians at 3 to 5 times the value it should be.This makes it hard for ordinary Australians to justify gas as alternate energy…and therefore solar comes in..with all sorts of incentives..only for those having solar and wanting to do the right thing..to get a kick up the bum from govt again with this nonsense.
Someone in govt is getting a lot of dollars for this to happen..and no one says anything.
It’s all bullshit..with only one winner…and that is not us
This is all smoke and mirrors, why do you always talk about the wholesale price getting lower when the retail price keeps rising. We don’t get our power at the wholesale price, so there is no point in keeping on referring to them. The public are always the ones to pay the price for these screwball ideas. (Not the government or the big companies, ). On top of that it’s our money the government spends, without us they wouldn’t have any money to spend!!
Well put…and my suggestions to Origin Energy about moving my Hot Water controlled load (so called off peak) times to daytime hours is met with indignation! The Victorian Essential Services Commission is now complicit in trashing household solar.
Rod, we had solar put on 13 months ago and because we had old analogue meters with off peak timer for HWS, they put the same sort of setup on with new digital meters, one normal circuit TOU, nad one CL TOU.
Was silly thing to do really, and as new solar consumers, we never gave that a thought.
We recently had the HW put onto the normal circuit, CL meter is still there, just not recording anything now . . . if they want it eventually, they can come and take it out.
We tossed up getting the Catch Control to use solar when enough there, and boost at best rate times when not enough (winter, cloudy, etc), but in the end just went for a simple timer, which (while we could set for say 1000 – 1500) we put onto just within the 0000 – 0600 to just use that 4kwh a night on our EV Night Saver 8c rate, so is negligible in cost now anyway.
The power supplier or retailer won’t do the change, not their responsibility, just need a sparky to do it.
Les
After a year on a 10.6 kw system we wanted to go a step further and put our CL hw on a CatchPower divert or. We are very happy – have the Catch on “full solar” setting and have not run out through a full year (there are only 2 of us). Our hw CL has gone from about $130 to zero. Not to say that the system is not seriously stuffed, but the divertor has worked for us and increased our self consumption
Contact your electrician and ask them to move your HWS to the general tariff. You’ll get a much more dignant response from him or her, because they can actual do the task for you.
We can get wholesale prices by using Amber energy as our retailer taking a minimal monthly fee for access to wholesale pricing.
So I have just started on this journey (3 months and counting) and last month my credit after all costs is $109.80. So no bills, just earning around $40 per month.
It’s not for everyone I know but by using 2 Powerwall 2’s and a Voltello curtailment device I am now able to sell solar at high prices per kWh and almost never need grid power for whole of house.
It’s fully automated and it’s been fantastic thus far and I hope it continues.
Wholesale access is real and not difficult but we have to be comfortable with all the implications and how we individually are able to manage our use.
Have to agree about Amber. It’s great if you have a battery. After setting up a solar system with a smallish battery in April 24, my last monthly bill showed I am in credit for $435. I haven’t had to pay one cent for an electricity bill all year.
What would happen if every home solar producer turned their system off during the day, would the grid continue to operate? Would the retailers run out of capacity? Do we have leverage in this way?
It’s a bit like organising a run on one of the big four banks… difficult to orchestrate and ultimately only going to cause damage. I wouldn’t want to give the troglodytes and nuclear fans something to latch onto.
Best approach is to make sure your local member (especially LNP ones) knows you have solar and you vote on that basis.
I find this discussion revealing in terms of what motivates people when they install solar. I’ve been surprised at the strength of feeling around feed-in tariffs, given that a major aim of the shift to renewables is to make energy much cheaper, as well as more enviornmentally friendly. So this fall in FiTs is evidence of success, not failure, energy is not only cheap for a large part of the day now, its wholesale price is negative.
I get that FiTs are seen by some as a way to help pay for their investment. But using the energy yourself always was far and away the greatest ROI, for solar, not FiTs. The purpose of the shift to renewables has never been to make them cash cows for ordinary homeowners.
Note from the moderators
Just about every one of the points I think Jason is trying to make here is wrong. There are no technical reasons we can’t easily move to 96% renewable energy with today’s technology.
Sadly we can’t have a nuanced debate about a complex subject unless people are willing to listen to reason, and more importantly, they’ve got the basic science education and critical thinking skills to recognise when they’re being propagandised.
We would normally put this sort of rambling hyperbole straight in the rubbish but it’s important to realise people are often driven by fear, uncertainty and doubt. We must foster unity to fight for the cause instead of fighting each other.
Storage, THE VIRTUAL POWER NETWORK.
YOU GENERATE.
YOU STORE.
POWER COMPANIES CAN EMPTY YOUR BATTERIES INCLUDING EV’S AND GUESS WHAT YOU NEXT TO NOTHING AND GET LEFT WITH NO STORED POWER AND CAR IS FLAT SO CAN DRIVE TO WORK.
LABOUR HAVE it all worked out, we get SHARFTED.
UNLESS YOU HAVE HAD YOUR SYSTEM for 5 or more years.
My 3.3kw now only generates 2.3kw after 9 years and I payed more for better panels.
Your power rate are higher.
Net zero will ever happen maybe net zero increase in emissions at the best, should already be building nuclear or drill to 4.5 km at 300 plus degrees renewable, no consumption, it’s down here.
Remove the moisture for coal first make less emissions.
Shouldn’t cripple us, push us to develop better technology and give it to poorer countries.
Bowen get off the oxygen reduction therapy it’s not good for whole of Australia.
Just to answer a couple of Jason’s points:
“YOU STORE.
POWER COMPANIES CAN EMPTY YOUR BATTERIES INCLUDING EV’S AND GUESS WHAT YOU NEXT TO NOTHING AND GET LEFT WITH NO STORED POWER AND CAR IS FLAT SO CAN DRIVE TO WORK.”
The answer is simply if you don’t want the power companies to pinch your power, just flick the circuit breakers on your domestic power board. Go off-grid temporarily!
“Remove the moisture for coal first make less emissions.”
This is only suitable for SOME types of coal. And where does the energy to dry the coal come from? Burning more coal? Increased emissions?
“Net zero will ever happen maybe net zero increase in emissions at the best, should already be building nuclear …”
Under the First Law of Conservation of Energy, it can be neither created nor destroyed – simply changes its form. ANY generating facility which uses non-renewable energy (including nuclear) eventually emits ALL of its energy into the environment; the cooling towers, the rivers/ oceans, transmission lines, transformers (whether stepping up or stepping down), and at the end of the line when the work is done, whether it be an aluminium smelter or a domestic oven. This can create a phenomenon called “heat islanding” which increases environmental temperatures locally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_heat_island
“The main cause of the UHI effect is from the modification of land surfaces while waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor.”
This means that increased temperatures need consumption of more energy to keep establishments cool, generating more waste heat, etc.
One option that the above article has omitted, is the prospect of buying a comparatively inexpensive BEV that has,if not V2H, then V2L,and, using the V2L functionality to provide power to the house, through a HOEM thingy – see
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/hoem-review/
Even 2kW of power from a V2L BEV, could help with both energy costs, and,with power supply stability.
And, the proposition could also help with the environment, and, with transportation costs.
And, in comparison with stationary batteries, a BEV can have a lower per kW price.
One doesn’t necessarily need to go to the expense of buying a complete BEV. With the number of BEVs on the market there will soon be a tide of “used” batteries becoming available, which are still eminently useful. I’ve recycled two sets (one from 2012, and the other which replaced it in 2023) and they are now soaking up WA’s glorious summer sunlight. The older set is now attached (via a suitable BMS) to the SLA batteries (2013) storing power from my rooftop solar, and the other is attached to an off-grid system with 12 volt solar panels and an MPPT controller. Since late Nov ’24 I’ve imported 42 kWh from the grid, and exported 872 kWh. For more than half of that time I’ve switched out of the grid completely. It’s not a universal solution, but it’s a first step.
” As well as batteries, bear in mind you’ll likely need an expensive, noisy, polluting backup generator that will need regular and costly servicing.”
Not necessarily. There are increasing numbers of fuel cell generators *at reasonable prices. They are quiet and non-polluting and from what I’ve seen, little servicing is required. Also there is a possibility that home generation of hydrogen to power the fuel cells may come to fruition.
*Google “portable fuel cell generator”.
Not only that but with V2H/G becoming available over the next couple of years, your generator becomes the local public charger. Take your care there charge it up, 4 or 5 more days of power.
Oh yes? Could you explain how this can happen?
A quick look of Victorian FiTs by retailer on Wattever show almost all offer 3.3c as their minimum, barely a handful offer a capped higher rate that covers most of the daily charge, and a few others offer a maximum higher than 3.3c e.g. 5c, but usually have export caps or size restrictions for inverter and\or PV system.
Looking at flat rate plans they average 20c-25c for general usage, and about $1 for daily charge, though things do vary considerably. Some companies have other charges e.g. a solar meter charge, but these aren’t listed on Wattever.
Dropping the FiT to 0.04c makes export essentially worthless and so the odds of making a profit on exports, or breaking even, grows ever yet more unlikely. Should Victoria ever introduce a Sun Tax …
While this piece suggests going off grid is a “*really* expensive way to protest” is it? Wouldn’t the expense be dependent on the size of your solar, and how much power you use when the size doesn’t shine? In the offchance you do need a backup generator, why should you need an expensive one? In the past few years there’s been only one period where solar has yield was so low that a battery would not have filled. I admit I’ve not really done research into generators but surely a ‘microgenerator’ would be relatively inexpensive, light, and sufficient to recharge an average battery, albeit very slowly. And of course this assumes cutting the cord is a matter of protest.
More critically, as solar owners opt out of the grid, the full cost ends up landing on those who can’t opt out – apartment dwellers, renters, and those too poor to afford solar. Ultimately it makes no difference to the rich, but the poor will suffer, as always.
I doubt there will be wide-spread disconnection from the grid – it’s such cheap insurance; but I guess it’s possible if fixed costs get too high. But I completely agree that a problem is looming as more and more of us buy less electricity because we have solar and batteries. Someone has to pay to maintain the grid and part of that comes from charges built into the consumption tariffs.
For me, the penny dropped only recently that I’m a grid-leaner. I mainly use it for export or on periods of low-solar/high aircon days – not really paying my share for that community resource for most of the year. I agree that renters and apartment dwellers are the true grid-lifters; they should be given a special daytime tariff to simulate virtual solar. It’s a win for social equity and this solar surplus.
I wonder if it’s possible to have FiTs that vary by month, instead of or as well as tariffs that vary by time?
If you look at the OpenElectricity data for Vic for the last 12 months, for Utility Solar the lower demand and/or higher generation months receive a poor value (4c per kWh or less) for their output, however this was not the case for lower generation/high demand months of May, June and July where the average value was 9c-15c per kWh.
Incentivising winter exports in Vic makes sense, it will encourage North facing panels (maybe even vertical?), improved housing & heating efficiency, and with increased production we’ll be able to charge the huge amount of battery storage that we’ve got coming online in the next year.
Note that this mainly makes sense for heating dominant Vic, where the winter average demand is high and solar generation is poor.
One other option available to ‘grid-connected’ Solar system owners in Victoria is to simply stop exporting if the feed-in tariff becomes negative, zero or too low to make it worthwhile. For a 0.04c/kWh feed-in, that would certainly encourage me just to stop feeding anything into the grid – why would I sell them any energy that they would then sell to someone else for 500 to 1000 times what they buy it for? Batteries and/or a V2H may make sense to better utilise any over-production.
Henry, my thoughts also.
If your system can’t handle it, a Catch Power unit installed and programmed will take care of that.
I’m either going to go battery or V2H/G in the coming 12 months.
Preferably a suitable, relatively cheap BEV that I can charge for free from rooftop solar, or 8c night tariff 0000-0600 if required.
Just hook it up to cover the normal few KWH used between about 7pm and midnight, and a virtually free running cost vehicle for around the ‘burbs.
Blackout protection would be nice, not sure if that could ever be an option with V2H, but we hardly ever get those here being very close to a retirement village just around the corner.
Solar people are now coming to realise without a battery of some sort, and the reducing FITs / future sun tax on NEM, that they will gradually lose the financial incentive of solar vs the power cos.
An option no-one has mentioned is, if you have a battery, going with a wholesale supplier like Amber. Although I live in NSW, over the last few months I have been earning $200-300 per month. FITs are frequently negative during the day, so I don’t export and charge my battery. Then at peak times (usually in the early evening) FITs can sometimes reach $5-10 or higher for a couple of hours, so I can earn $50 or more in one session.
Tme of use pricing in NSW is pathetic, doesn’t really reflect the zero or negative wholesale pricing during the day. If they made it a lot cheaper for ordinary consumers to use energy in the middle of the day, they may need less curtailment and be able to offer more generous FiTs.
The exception being some EV plans.
0.04c is absolutely a joke for everyone. How could it impact the solar market? I can’t imagine someone want a new solar system when hearing about this.
Yes Xiaoyu Wang, basically will force people that want to go solar to reduce bills to also get a battery.
The only way you will be able to stay ahead of the game soon.
“I took a look at wholesale electricity prices in Victoria on Friday between the hours of 10am and 2pm, and it worked out at an average of 3.2c per kilowatt hour.”
Friday was a hot day in a lot of Melbourne (Scoresby 31.4) so a lot of air cons were cranking up at that time.
Air cons are virtually the only thing that causes the wholesale price to be positive at those times outside of winter and even at the height of summer in Melbourne, most days don’t have enough air con running to lift the wholesale price above zero.
So Friday was unusual over the whole year and most of the year between 10 am and 2 pm, the wholesale price is negative.
I totally agree with what “Henry Says”. I, and I am sure many others, will definitely zero export limit my system when the new F.I.T. is applied .
Reducing the FiT to zero (in any state or territory), is fundamentally corrupt and does not “Pass The Pub Test”.
It is self serving to the retailers, aided and abetted by Fedetal plus State Governments, to the detriment of the PV system owners.
It is dimply the next sequential step in maintaining corporate profit margins for electric power retailers.
Yes, a net zero FiT will coerce / force electricity consumers to “up the ante” in the never ending battle to contain their ever increasing electricity costs.
So much for the promises of successive Federal Governments that competition within retail providers , combined with Government policy will bring down actual electricity bills.
That has, and always will be, a totally politically motivated line of B.S. that we as consumers are expected to swallow “in perpetuity”.
The reality is, that since privatisation of the retail energy sector, those retailers need to continually increase their profit margins to meet their (predominantly ASX) profit forecasts, or face the wrath of their shareholders.
The challenge for us as consumers, (who the Retail Companies consider as cash cows, ripe for milking, is to try to stay ahead of the curve, adopt the latest renewable energy “offerings” at the most appropriate time and price point(s), then consume as much of what we can “generate from renewables” within our own sphere of consumption.
In a perfect world (for home consumers), we wouldn’t need energy retailers, as we would be self producing a small excess of what we consume over consecutive daily cycles of production and consumption.
So I suggest we all consider swapping out our ICE powered town runabout for a second hand EV, charging that with our excess solar while plugged in through the day and using it for the grocery shopping and school runs.
If we manage to find and buy one (2nd hand EV) that has V2H, – then double bonus! Maybe even get through the evening peak pricing period.
That is the REAL way to “Stick it to the man”
It would pass the pub test in a country pub full of farmers. They are very familiar with what you get paid when you produce something that nobody wants to buy.
I don’t think the reduction in FiTs is corrupt, but I fully agree with your comments about the disaster of privatisation – that’s corrupt.
And as much as I detest energy retailers and how they prey on those who don’t understand the numbers, you can’t really pin this one on them. They don’t benefit from the FiT reduction, in fact, it’s arguable they lose out; at least next year when the wholesale price dips further, but the FiT remains constrained to zero by Vic legislation.
It seems to me to be a mug’s game to live in Victoria. Qld gives a $6000 rebate on an EV. Vic – zero. FIT now slashed to, let’s call it nothing. There were other options. How about trying to create demand for the power? 5c retail power from 12 noon to 3 pm. How about a real battery rebate, not a freaking loan? I think we solar panel folk need to get organized and turn our systems off at an agreed time and date and see how they go without our power. Perhaps a few rolling stoppages might achieve some fairness. I’d even put up with this crap if I thought other folk might get my power cheaply, but they won’t. Retailers still charge 25 to 30c for power when it is “free” to them. Minister D’Ambrosio has been hell bent on destroying our return on investment, and her government do very little to assist Victorians who are just trying to do the smart and right thing. We can’t even use an EV to run our house – why not? I’ve been a Labor voter but I’m now finished with that.
Solar folk are already super organized to turn all our panels off at once. We turn on our stoves, aircons, TVs and PlayStations at about the same time too. It’s called dusk – or as the generators call it – the Fleecing Hour. The retailers don’t really care either way, but would be slightly happier if we did all turn our panels off.
There is stuff being done to increase daytime demand – quite a few big batteries; a ginormous pumped hydro plant; Vic rebates to electrify your house; FBT exemptions for EVs; a few plans that are cheap or zero tariff in the middle of the day. Ask your politician to mandate a cheap daytime tariff for low-income families or renters who can’t get solar. That would make a big difference.
Some of us didn’t wait for the pollies and stumped up for a battery, an EV or two, electric garden equipment, electric bbq, electric everything really.
It’s easy to be disappointed with Labor, but make sure you research what the other mob have planned for your solar.
“Ask your politician to mandate a cheap daytime tariff for low-income families or renters”
Force is not always the best solution. But being informed usually is.
https://pages.ovoenergy.com.au/the-free-3-plan
Being informed is what the Victorian government tries to motivate, but they could do better. https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/
I have written to the Minister in the past and she deferred to the ESC, who wrote to me to tell me about the wholesale pricing – thank you not.
The FBT exemption on the EV is a federal initiative and no use to us who no longer work. This is an initiative that was designed for those on bigger salaries and still working. Not hugely equitable. We will ultimately electrify more things, but I will likely stop feed ins altogether if the rate is 0.04c. And yes I wrote to my local member at the same time I wrote the original blog here. Maybe he can put the case to the Minister, as she is invisible to me. I await a response.
The reality has finally hit.You have been overpaid in the past for the solar power you supplied to the grid.I am sure a lot of power has been wasted.Talk about whinging pom’s.Australians are taking over that mantle.Remember also you have to maintain and replace your equipment and panels which was never a Issue when solar panels were not around.Time for a better solution.Storage is added cost which has to be maintained and replaced .
Hi Rex,
People do seem to get pretty irrational about retailers paying little and charging lots but that’s what privatisation has bought us sadly.
However we’re on the right path. The 2021-22 report confirms past years’ findings that wind and solar are the cheapest source of electricity generation and storage in Australia, even when considering additional integration costs arising due to the variable output of renewables, such as energy storage and transmission.
https://www.csiro.au/en/news/News-releases/2022/GenCost-2022?fbclid=IwAR2hwicNwOB9Qz5Nt2OeE-zIg6_kxzh51J88T5vkfQ73M_I8DI3o8MpQKJQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NqfBXaWuu-o
“Remember also you have to maintain and replace your equipment and panels which was never a Issue when solar panels were not around.” People have been doing that with cars for decades, but I don’t hear too many complaints. I installed rooftop solar in 2009 and yes, I replaced my panels … simply because my consumption went up (a new EV) and a couple were damaged by hailstone. In other words I needed more power.
“Storage is added cost which has to be maintained and replaced” I installed sealed lead acid batteries in 2013 for my rooftop system. Maintenance? Zilch. Lately I’ve added some old EV lithium batteries (via a BMS). As it stands I can’t see any replacement before 2032 or ‘3.
Hi Joe,
Can I ask are you running a 48v nominal battery system? Are there Lithium and Lead Acid in parallel? I’ve heard of this being done to extract the last drop of good ness from a lead acid bank, while offering the stiffness and charging speed of lithium.
Hi Anthony,
The Rooftop solar is running 24 volts on-grid. The two systems are in parallel as you’ve heard. Been going now for 2 years with no problems. I had an elec engineer friend do the hard yards while I handed him the screwdrivers and took notes. Late last year I got him to put the new Lithiums* in place of the old FLA batteries, but off-grid, running 12 volts.
I’ve got a Daly BMS which I can read from my phone and keep track of events.
*They were replacing the old ones in the EV, but then the EV itself died so I was stuck with nearly new batteries so I thought why not re-use them?
Unfortunately we as consumers can’t win against corporate greed and government corruption.
The only way forward in our new house will be Amber as retailer for access to wholesale electricity prices, 13kW of solar, 16kWh battery storages (expandable) and our EV charged from solar/vehicle to grid in the future. Resistive Electric hot water to soak up solar as well. All automated.
Hopefully we will make a profit with selling electricity back from the battery during high FIT periods to pay for it all.
AEMO should force the retailers to provide rates to heat hot water cheaply during the day, not at night. That would kill coal plants even faster and rise the wholesale price of electricity during the day above zero. I don’t understand why this is not done already…
Wouldn’t life be grand if power companies were forced to charge consumers no more than, say , 3 times the current feed in tariff they are paying solar generators? Most businesses would kill to have a 3 times markup on the products they on sell.
That would genuinely encourage those without solar to time shift their usage where possible to when power is cheap.
Then people might actually believe the system is soaked in excess power.
I find it very hard to believe that whilst they are paying me 3c a kw for the power I feed in, that they are selling to my neighbour for 30c a kw as I generate it.
I call that profiteering…
If you are in one of the areas that Amber Electric service, they will happily sell you electricity at the SAME price they pay the generators.
One of the side effects of being with Amber is you quickly understand why your power company isn’t really buying your energy for 3c and selling to your neighbour for 30c – it’s an illusion.
For a start, that 30c includes GST, about 6 network charges, environmental levies, market charges and jurisdictional schemes. Let’s call this 10c of the 30c.
Your neighbour’s bill doesn’t itemise the costs for the 6 hours of the day you were exporting at 3c on the sunny days of the month. It’s a fixed 30c for 24 hours a day for the whole month – night, rain, hail, heatwave, cold snap. It includes some very cheap daytime electricity from you (but a coal generator was offering a better price than you) and occasional horrendously expensive 6pm electricity paid to a price-gouging gas generator gaming the system to push the dinner time price to $16kWh. They do their sums and work out a grand average that covers their costs and gives them some profit. It comes out at 30c all up.
I’m not apologizing for the retailers, they are ripping the public off. It’s just not really a 3c vs 30c scam. The scam is that they have worked out your grandmother is a trusting soul and hasn’t noticed they have jacked her price up to 40c, while they are charging your neighbour 30c.
It sounds like it’s better spend your money on batteries than solar panels. Charge them up during the day and export at peak, with enough in reserve for your own consumption. Instead of a 14KW system and one Tesla Powerwall, ditch the solar panels and buy two Tesla Powerwalls instead.
I fear the impact this will have on new and refresh of solar installations (and the solar install industry), essentially adding a few more years to the payback is bound to deter customers.
Personally, this will likely drive me to buying a EV for my next car and using the excess solar to charge the run-about car..
I’d like to see an on-demand feed-in system (similar to Amber) as a wide-spread option amongst retails, so I can discharge my house battery at peak times.
Amber Wholesale was poor value for me up on the VIC border, it’s been mostly negative FiT since September, so ended up going back to a normal retailer.
10kW Solar + Tesla PW2 install here by the way.
I’m in agreement with the car in some respects, but the depreciation on them has been very high. Factor that in and it may not be so compelling. The car will become more compelling when it can be connected properly to the home rather than via its V2L outlet. The house battery is still really hard to get a return on, particularly if you have repairs to pay for outside of warranty, or if your supplier goes belly up as has happened. I still cant get a compelling financial case for it with an 8.5kW solar system.
I currently have a 10kW solar panel with 10kWh batteries. In the middle of summer the batteries are fully charged by 10 am and then any excess power is exported up to the imposed limit of 5kW. So far I am exporting about 1MWh per month and at about 2 cents/kWh the return covers the daily charge (about $1/day) and the small amount of importing (less than 0.5 kWh per day) at nearly 40 c/kWh. To cut the FIT to 0.04 c/kWh will encourage me to go totally off-grid. The downside to that is that there will be 1 MWh/month less virtually free power going into the grid that could be stored in community or other batteries to benefit those people that cannot install solar.
My system has only been installed for a couple of months, so I don’t know from experience how it will perform in Melbourne winter, but I have been assured that it will be able to support my modest needs off-grid in winter.
So the question remains, do I save money and go totally off-grid or do I continue to pay $300+ to a retailer to allow my excess power to be exported for the public good?
Hi Stewart,
After 15+ years installing remote area systems I assure you that off grid systems must have backup for long overcast weeks in winter.
For remote area power you need a diesel generator… but a lightweight grid hybrid inverter isn’t suitable and in some cases has no warranty. (Those who do offer cheap inverters with generator support are adorably optimistic)
The grid is cheaper, stronger, better quality and more reliable than and generator.
Mains power is a precious public good, like the sewer system and Medicare.
Best stay connected.
Stewart,
I’d agree with Anthony. Even though I’m now pretty sure I could last off-grid indefinitely in sunnytime, and possibly for a couple of days during the “grey season”, I don’t, as yet, intend to switch off permanently. (I’ve made a couple of posts on this topic above.) How about thinking laterally, rather than wanting to get money for your excess power from “the man”, try finding another use for it? In 2007 I purchased an “air-from-water” condensing and filtration machine. As long as there is sufficient humidity, it produced several litres per day, especially when I harvest the condensate from my airconditioner and processed that. (The machine puts the water through a charcoal filter, a reverse osmosis filter, a capsule which adds minerals to the water, and an ultra violet steriliser.) I also have rainwater tanks. This link is to a list showing the cost of “bottled water” per litre.
https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2016/bottled-water/
I cycle all year round and can consume up to 4-5 litres of water per day. (Including coffee.) I think the money I save by NOT drinking bottled water would be more than making up for FiT lost. (Plus no plastic bottles to recycle.) How about checking locally, with say EV groups, to see whether you could sell your excess power to EV drivers? (There’s a private house within 10 km of my place that does that.)
Now that selling your excess power off your panels to an EV owner who lives close buy has a lot of potential, or even better – to someone who commutes to close to where you live, charge them for the parking space and “include free charging” if there is any issues with selling them the power… if its a wet miserable day and no power is available, they still get the parking spot.